The History of Mount Vernon Triangle
Pierre L'Enfant laid out Mount Vernon Square as one of 15 public reservations that were designed as focal points in the Federal City. However, the area languished until the first decade of the 19th Century when 7th Street, NW was paved all the way to Boundary Street (now Florida Avenue), eventually continuing north to Maryland.
The area around Mount Vernon Square was known as the Northern Liberties, a moniker given to areas that were beyond the "limits of the city." In 1843, neighborhood residents petitioned the City Council to create a public market, and by 1845 the Northern Liberties Market opened on the 7th Street side of Mount Vernon Square, serving as a produce market with indoor and outdoor stalls and a picket fence to keep livestock in and wild dogs and pigs out.
The market flourished and the building was expanded to accommodate the growing demand. However, residents complained about the trash and foul smell from livestock and waste, and in 1872 the Northern Liberties Market moved to a bigger, more modern facility at 5th and K Streets, NW. This structure became the City's first Convention Hall in 1893 when a second floor was added to accommodate 5000 spectators. In 1946, a devastating fire swept through the building, and the market never fully recovered as competition from supermarkets changed the way consumers shop for groceries. In 1966, what remained of the building was converted into the Wax Museum, and in the 1970s, a new convention center opened at 11th and H Streets, N.W., which was recently replaced with the current convention center at 9th and K Streets, NW.
After the relocation of the market, Mount Vernon Square was redesigned as a public park, with a central fountain, benches, and detailed landscaping. In 1899, Andrew Carnegie committed funds to pay for the design and construction of the city's central public library in Mount Vernon Square. The new facility opened in 1903. Designed in the Beaux-Arts style, it was one of the most expensive of all the Carnegie libraries outside of Pittsburgh. Its core collection of 12,412 books came from the Washington City Free Library, which had been an integrated lending library before its collection was donated to the new library.
The Carnegie library continued to serve as the city's central library until a replacement facility threatened its demolition in the 1950s. Thanks to the Fine Arts Commission, the building still stands and is now used by the DC Historical Society and other organizations. The book collection moved to the Martin Luther King Library in 1970, where it remains today.
Poised east of the new Convention Center, Mount Vernon Triangle is becoming an extraordinary mixed-use neighborhood on the east end of downtown Washington, DC. New apartments, condos, offices, and places to shop, dine, and relax are emerging from 30 acres of underutilized land. Mount Vernon Triangle is small enough for neighbors to get to know each other, yet large enough to attract destination shops, restaurants, and services.
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