River Farms to Urban Towers
—Southwest Heritage Trail —
All that surrounds this sign resulted from the nation's first urban renewal project. To your left is Arena State, a leader in the resident company theater movement. Founded as an innovative theater-in-the-round in an old downtown movie theater in 1950, Arena Stage moved to this Harry Weese-designed building in 1961.
Just beyond Arena Stage is the Modernist high-rise residential complex of Waterside Towers, designed by Chloethiel Woodard Smith. Behind you across M Street stands Tiber Island, a prize-winning development by Keyes, Lethbridge & Condon. These designs explain Southwest's reputation as a showcase of 20th-century architecture and planning. St. Augustine Episcopal Church, completed in 1965, was one of seven built after renewal demolished 28 of Old Southwest's 34 houses of worship.
In the 1930s congressional and city officials nationwide were struggling with the problem of aged, deteriorating cities. Could they be fixed and beautified or should they be torn down and built anew? Would better buildings improve the lives of residents if their communities were lost? Could governments re-make cities or did they need help from private developers? And would the displaced ever be able to come home again?
Southwest offered Congress a test lab. Most Southwesters were low-income people who valued their
neighborhood but had no political clout. Nearly half of Southwest's housing lacked plumbing, and disease rates were high. Criminal activity included gambling and prostitution. Beginning in 1954, despite thousands of protests, the Redevelopment Land Agency moved 23,500 people and began razing almost everything so that private developers could build a "new town in the city."
[Captions clockwise from top:]
In 1951 this block of Sixth Street, below, consisted of brick rowhouses built around 1900 and a typical corner grocery. By 1962 the Town Center Plaza apartments, left, (now Marina View Towers) and Arena Stage occupied this site.
Church of God at 569 Maine Avenue, left, and Gorsuch Baptist Church at Fourth and L streets, below, were among dozens torn down during urban renewal.
Arena Stage's first production in its new theater, The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht, 1961.
Southeastern University, specializing in business courses for adult students, became a cornerstone of the new Southwest when it moved here and opened its doors in 1972.
[Caption on reverse side:]
In December 1958 much of Old Southwest's tree-lined, low-scale neighborhood remained as Capitol Park, designed by Chloethiel Woodard Smith, was rising from its center. This sign
would have been located at the arrow. Photograph by Del Ankers
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