Help Us Decide -- Is U Street in Shaw?
Yesterday the New York Times published a review of new District hotspot Marvin, the Belgian-themed bar and restaurant sitting just north of the intersection of 14th and U streets NW:
Named for the “Sexual Healing” crooner, Marvin is a new Belgian bistro and lounge in the Shaw neighborhood where Gaye was born. Those taking an evening off from the darts-and-Dockers bar scenes in Georgetown or Adams Morgan say it feels more than a few Metro stops away from their usual haunts.Wait, Shaw? Yes, Shaw. But the Times isn't alone in making this claim -- the Washingtonian similarly lists Busboys and Poets, which is less than a block north of Marvin, as being in Shaw.
Is it really? Does Shaw extend as far north and west as some claim, effectively swallowing what has come to be known simply as U Street? Much like other debates on the ill-defined boundaries of D.C. neighborhoods -- remember North Cleveland Park? -- there's isn't a whole lot of clarity on the Shaw/U Street debate.
According to the D.C. Citizen Atlas, both Marvin and Busboys and Poets are in Neighborhood Cluster 3, which is listed as Howard University/LeDroit Park/Cardozo/Shaw and encompasses a swath of land between 15th and 1st streets NW and S Street and Michigan Avenue NW. Shaw spills over into Neighborhood Cluster 7 to the south also, though. According to Wikipedia's map of District neighborhoods, Shaw is a huge neighborhood that spans much of the U Street corridor.
Conversely, though, in 1998 the Greater U Street Street Historic District (.PDF) was included in the National Register of Historic Places, lending support to the argument that U Street and its surrounding environs are their own neighborhood. Additionally, Metro has two distinct stations for Shaw and U Street, and the Post lists both Marvin and Busboys and Poets as being in "U Street-Cardozo." To the business community, the U Street area is its own, though they refer to it as MidCity. Finally, Shaw Main Streets, a non-profit organization dedicated to revitalizing the neighborhood, focuses its efforts on the area between 7th and 9th streets NW and bounded by K Street to the south and Florida Avenue to the north -- the area most commonly associated with Shaw.
But to muddy the picture even further, it was the Cardozo Shaw Neighborhood Association that lobbied to have U Street added to the National Register of Historic Places. And according to their web site, they consider "Cardozo Shaw" to include everything between 16th Street to the west, 8th Street to the east, S Street to the south, and Florida Avenue, Barry Place and W Street to the north. (Notice the exclusion of 7th Street.)
So who's right? Is U Street merely a part of Shaw, or has it grown into its own distinct neighborhood worthy of formal recognition?
Photo by Ronnie R