Anacostia Timeline

A dated outline of the people, places, and events that shaped Anacostia. Each entry is sourced; full references are on the resources page.

Before the suburb

• 1608 — English explorer John Smith documents the Nacotchtank, an Algonquian-speaking people living on the east bank of the river.¹
• 1630s — Jesuit missionaries Latinize the Native name Anaquashtanik ("town of traders") to "Anacostan," which later attaches to the river and neighborhood.²
• 1820 — a wooden bridge is built at 11th Street SE, linking the east bank to the Washington Navy Yard.¹⁷
• 1848 — the federal government buys the 11th Street bridge, making it free to cross.¹⁷

Uniontown and Cedar Hill (1854–1895)

• 1854 — developers operating as the Union Land Association lay out Uniontown on about 240 acres, Washington's first planned suburb; its deeds bar sale to people of African descent.³
• 1855 — the Government Hospital for the Insane (later St. Elizabeths) opens above the neighborhood, the first federal psychiatric hospital in the country.¹³
• 1867 — the Freedmen's Bureau buys the 375-acre Barry farm and subdivides it into one-acre plots for African American buyers.⁹
• 1871 — residents of the western section rename their area Hillsdale.¹⁰
• 1875 — a streetcar line reaches Uniontown across the Navy Yard Bridge.¹⁶
• 1877 — Frederick Douglass buys Cedar Hill, breaking the suburb's whites-only restriction.⁵
• 1878 — Douglass adds about 15 acres and expands the house from 14 rooms to 21.⁶
• 1886 — Congress officially renames Uniontown to Anacostia.⁴
• 1895 — Frederick Douglass dies at Cedar Hill on February 20.⁷

A recognized community (20th century)

• 1943 — the 442-unit Barry Farm Dwellings public housing project is built.¹¹
• 1950 — the South Capitol Street Bridge over the Anacostia opens; it is renamed the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in 1965.²⁰
• 1967 — the Smithsonian opens the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum on September 15, the first federally funded community museum in the U.S.¹⁸
• 1978 — the Anacostia Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.¹⁹
• 1988 — Cedar Hill is designated the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site on February 12.⁸
• 1990 — the St. Elizabeths campus is designated a National Historic Landmark.¹⁴

Anacostia today (2000s–present)

• 2007 — the redevelopment of the St. Elizabeths West Campus as the Department of Homeland Security headquarters is announced; the Honfleur Gallery opens on Good Hope Road.¹⁵²³
• 2018 — DC Water's Clean Rivers tunnel opens its first segment, targeting a roughly 98 percent cut in Anacostia River sewage overflows.²²
• 2018–2019 — the Barry Farm Dwellings are demolished for a mixed-income redevelopment approved in 2006.¹²
• 2021 — a new Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge opens on September 6.²¹