I started documenting the H Street-Benning Road corridor last April when plans were announced for the Washington Commanders return to RFK Stadium. While many residents celebrated the team’s return, I couldn’t stop thinking about the price tag—and the possibility that another major development project would accelerate the displacement of longtime residents.
The H Street Corridor
The District’s past is littered with major development projects that displaced and disrupted historic communities (particularly Black families) such as Southwest D.C., Georgetown, and Barry Farm, to name a few. I shot video to start chronicling the dramatic changes that would be taking place in the coming years to the H Street-Benning Road corridor. This corridor connects the approximate 3-mile stretch from Union Station in Northeast to the William J. Hardy Memorial Bridge in Southeast D.C. That change is underway with the closing of the Safeway supermarket in Hechinger Mall.
I remember the H Street-Benning Road corridor with great fondness. My formative years from kindergarten to 7th grade were spent on 10th & G Street NE, one short block from H Street. It was a thriving stretch of department stores, furniture stores, moms and pops stores, hardware stores, drug stores, etc. That was until the riots of 1968. We were so close that we could almost feel the flames as H Street went ablaze after the death of Martin Luther King Jr.
The image of National Guard troops with M-16s guarding the smoldering rubble that remained after the devastating fires is as vivid today as it was intimidating then. I also remember thinking it would take at least a few months or years to rebuild or replace the stores we had grown up with. The reality is that it took nearly 2 generations for H Street to return. And when it did, a lot of the families I grew up with weren’t there to be a part of it, and neither were we. 
Bye-Bye Chocolate City
Since the adoption of the H Street NE Strategic Development Plan, the H Street corridor has been gradually transforming into a high-end residential, government, and diverse shopping ‘gateway’ as you exit Union Station.
Once heralded as Chocolate City with a Black population of 70% due to “white flight,” the District has transformed into a collection of high-end downtown apartment lofts and high rises fueling a younger, more affluent, and increasingly white citizenry. H Street is no exception with incomes reflecting the demographic changes.
With the African American population standing at roughly 43%, many residents fear that redevelopment tied to the Commanders return could further accelerate the city’s demographic transformation. This raises concerns that nearby neighborhoods may face the same market pressures that transformed Navy Yard and the Wharf. The area that will highlight the demographic changes to mirror what has happened on H Street will be the Starburst Plaza.
Starburst Plaza
The connective tissue between the H Street and Benning Road corridors is Starburst Plaza. Starburst Plaza is the intersection of 6 major streets (H Street, Benning Road, Bladensburg Road, Maryland Ave, 15th Street, and Florida Avenue). It’s also where the corridor officially transitions from H Street to Benning Road. Once the crowning jewel for the Hechinger Mall created to be “a more attractive civic space while supporting revitalization of the H Street corridor,” it devolved into a dangerous, open-air drug market. Although there has been increased police presence, its luster is lost – as is the luster of Hechinger Mall itself – magnified by the closing of the Safeway in May.
This is probably the biggest blow so far and foreboding of things to come in that area. One needs only to look at how Nationals Park transformed the waterfront into high-end lofts and trendy restaurants. The first domino has fallen. The next significant change to come will be when Hechinger Mall no longer bears the name of one of the legendary families in DC history. As redevelopment pressures mount and Hechinger Mall faces an uncertain future, Starburst Plaza stands as both a reminder of the area’s past and a preview of the changes still to come. This is where we will pick up in Part 2 of Southwest Revisited: The H Street-Benning Road Corridor.
Featured image/photo courtesy of Wikimedia.
#HStreetBenningRoadCorridor
#DCVoice
#TheDCVoice
#DCVoiceMedia
#DCVoiceNetwork
#DCVoiceTV
#DCVoiceStudios
#DCVoiceOfficial
#changingthenarrative
#media
#news