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How Logan Circle was built, from DC's historic building permits, and what the newspaper said about it a hundred years ago this week.
| Decade | Buildings |
|---|---|
| 1870s | 213 |
| 1880s | 293 |
| 1890s | 85 |
| 1900s | 56 |
| 1910s | 37 |
| 1920s | 42 |
| 1930s | 14 |
| 1940s | 9 |
| 1950s | 14 |
| 2010s | 6 |
Each record is one building listed on a historic DC building permit; a single permit can cover many buildings. The busiest decade is highlighted in the chart.
In 1873, Jas. G. Naylor built 6 buildings on the 1300 block of Riggs Street NW under 1 permit. The largest permit covered 6 buildings.
Mentions of Logan Circle in the Evening Star, October 31 – November 6, 1926. Searched for "Iowa Circle", "Thomas Circle", "Vermont avenue", "Fourteenth street".
“Call or phone between 10 and 4 Do not telephone or call after 4 p.m. Mrs. Uinstead, Franklin 887. 0* THOMAS CIRCLE. 1124 Vermont ave First floor, with kitchenette: third, house keeping. front.”See page 51 at loc.gov ↗
“Luther Place Memorial Church, at Fourteenth and N streets, wall be host to the monthly union meeting of the District of Columbia Intermediate Christian Endeavor Union next Friday at 7:45 p.m. The annual conference classes will be the feature of this meeting.”See page 11 at loc.gov ↗
Clips are machine-read text (OCR) from scanned Evening Star pages on the Library of Congress's Chronicling America, lightly cleaned (line-break hyphens rejoined, stray symbols removed); misspellings are the scanner's. Newspapers this old are public domain. Each clip links to its page at loc.gov. Clips that mention race, covenants, deed restrictions or slurs are skipped automatically (keyword list: race, races, racial, colored, coloured, negro, negroes, white only, whites only, for whites, white people, white persons, white residents, caucasian, segregation, segregated, covenant, covenants, restricted, restriction, restrictions, plus a list of slurs), because they need an editor's context; legal notices and lists of private individuals are skipped too.
![[Logan Circle, Washington, D.C., looking north with tower of John Wesley A.M.E. Zion Church on 14th Street at left], [1922]](https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/pnp/npcc/07300/07393r.jpg)
![The Logan, 13 & Logan Circle, [Washington, D.C.], [ca. 1920]](https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/pnp/npcc/29000/29048r.jpg)
![Portland Apt., 14th & Thomas Circle, [Washington, D.C.], [between 1916 and 1917]](https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/pnp/npcc/32600/32674r.jpg)
Photographs from the Library of Congress (National Photo Company Collection; Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information photograph collection; Historic American Buildings Survey), each with no known restrictions on publication or in the public domain, per the Library. Titles are the Library's, written when the photos were catalogued; some use the language of their time. Each links to its record.
A numbered street in the city grid. A horse-drawn railway arrived in 1865, spurring building north of Thomas Circle. By the mid-20th century the blocks near P Street were 'auto row', lined with car dealerships; in the 1970s and 1980s part of the street was known mainly as a red-light district.
Sources: 14th Street (Washington, D.C.) - Wikipedia · Thomas Circle - WikipediaL'Enfant's plan placed a large plaza here; the 1879 city directory first called it Iowa Circle. Elegant houses rose around it in the 1870s. McKinley dedicated Logan's equestrian statue in 1901, and Congress renamed Iowa Circle for him in an act approved December 11, 1930. The neighborhood takes its name from the circle.
Earlier: Iowa CircleSources: Public Law 71-544, An Act To change the name of Iowa Circle ... to Logan Circle (46 Stat. 1026, govinfo) · Logan Circle (Washington, D.C.) - Wikipedia · Logan Circle Historical Marker (HMDB)One of only two avenues that pass through three quadrants, and the only state-named road to touch two District borders. It crosses Thomas Circle, where a tunnel now carries it beneath the circle.
Sources: List of state-named roadways in Washington, D.C. - Wikipedia · Thomas Circle - WikipediaA state-named artery that begins at M Street and Connecticut Avenue, passes through Logan Circle itself, and leaves the District in Woodridge, carrying U.S. 1 for much of its length.
Source: List of state-named roadways in Washington, D.C. - WikipediaThe street is believed to have been named for Thomas Swann, a 19th-century Maryland governor and slaveholder. A 2023 DC law kept the name but rededicated the stretch from 14th to 19th streets to William Dorsey Swann, a formerly enslaved Washingtonian who staged secret balls in the 1880s and called himself the 'Queen of Drag'.
Sources: D.C. Law 25-28, William Dorsey Swann Street Designation Act of 2023 (D.C. Law Library) · Swann Street Re-Dedicated For First Known Drag Queen (DCist, 2022) · DC Punk Classic 'Swann Street' Is Getting a New Name (Sort of) (Washingtonian, 2022)Shown as an intersection in L'Enfant's 1791 plan, it was nicknamed Memorial Circle after residents planted memorial trees for their home states. It took Thomas's name when the Society of the Army of the Cumberland's equestrian statue was installed; the dedication on November 19, 1879, drew some 50,000 people.
Earlier: Memorial CircleSources: Equestrian statue of George Henry Thomas - Wikipedia · Major General George Henry Thomas Statue (DC Historic Sites, DC Preservation League) · Thomas Circle - WikipediaThe counterpart to Connecticut Avenue: it starts at Lafayette Square, passes through McPherson Square and both Thomas and Logan circles, and ends at Florida Avenue near Howard University.
Source: List of state-named roadways in Washington, D.C. - WikipediaStill looking for a reliable source on Corcoran Street NW, Riggs Street NW, Church Street NW, Kingman Place NW, Corregidor Street NW, Johnson Avenue NW, Highland Terrace NW. We don't publish a name's story until we can cite one. Know it? Tell us.
A thirty-year Logan Circle resident, author and former ANC commissioner recalls a quiet life with two long-term partners and a 1990s divide between tree-lined 15th Street and a 14th Street marked by drugs, crime and prostitution, when Annie's on 17th Street and bars like Friends and Halo were safe places.
At Rainbow History Project Digital Collections (with the Logan Circle Community Association and the Washington Blade) · LGBTQ life, 14th Street, ANCBailey, who grew up in DC, moved to Logan Circle in 1994. He recalls avoiding the circle itself, friends who wouldn't visit when there were no amenities, and the change as gay life migrated from Dupont Circle and new shops, restaurants and, in 2002, the bar Halo arrived.
At Rainbow History Project Digital Collections (with the Logan Circle Community Association and the Washington Blade) · LGBTQ life, neighborhood change, public safetyTwo men who moved to Logan Circle in 1980 and 1981 and shared a group house found through ads at Lambda Rising and in the Washington Blade. They recall a neighborhood in flux, with little dining or shopping, treks to gay spots elsewhere in the city, gay choruses and activism.
At Rainbow History Project Digital Collections (with the Logan Circle Community Association and the Washington Blade) · LGBTQ life, group houses, gay activismGuggenmos came from Wyoming in 1989 for college and took a cheap group-house room at Logan Circle, east of what he calls the 'magic line' of 15th Street. A later ANC member and bar and restaurant owner, he covers gay life moving east from Dupont, Pride's evolution, real estate and safety.
At Rainbow History Project Digital Collections (with the Logan Circle Community Association and the Washington Blade) · LGBTQ life, Pride, real estate, public safetyA Thai immigrant who arrived in 1991 and found community through Asian and Friends recalls 16th Street as the line between safe and unsafe streets, the close circle of 1990s merchants on 14th Street, opening his restaurant Rice in 2003, and how apps changed what a 'gay neighborhood' means.
At Rainbow History Project Digital Collections (with the Logan Circle Community Association and the Washington Blade) · 14th Street businesses, Asian and Friends, LGBTQ lifeAn artist from El Salvador who bought a Logan Circle house in 1988 describes the artists' studios around 14th Street, founding MidCity Artists' open studios, parties that moved on to gay bars, friends too afraid of crime to visit, and the 'walking blocks' and 'running blocks' east of 15th Street.
At Rainbow History Project Digital Collections (with the Logan Circle Community Association and the Washington Blade) · artists, MidCity Artists, LGBTQ life, public safetyHired at Whitman-Walker Clinic in 1991, Travers recalls its supportive housing for people with AIDS, serving as an ANC commissioner amid conflicts such as opposition to a new N Street Village facility, and buying a condominium in a Vermont Avenue mansion in 1992.
At Rainbow History Project Digital Collections (with the Logan Circle Community Association and the Washington Blade) · Whitman-Walker Clinic, AIDS housing, ANC, Vermont AvenueSearch the archives yourself: The People's Archive, DC Public Library · Historic Chevy Chase DC Oral History Archive · Humanities Truck Community Archive, American University · Tenleytown Historical Society · Boundary Stones (WETA) · Glover Park History: Oral History and Reminiscences · Cleveland Park Historical Society Oral Histories · Rainbow History Project Digital Collections · hometown DC (DC History Center) · Hola Cultura: Adams Morgan History · Citizens Association of Georgetown · Peabody Room, Georgetown Neighborhood Library (DC Public Library) · Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum Archives: A Right to the City Exhibition Records · Ruth Ann Overbeck Capitol Hill History Project · Mosaic Theater H Street Oral History Project · Library of Congress, Manuscript Division · Anacostia Community Museum Archives (Smithsonian) · Naval History and Heritage Command, Navy Department Library · The Catholic University of America Archives · Bygone Brookland · Dig DC, DC Public Library · hometown DC (HumanitiesDC / Historical Society of Washington, D.C.) · Dig DC, DC Public Library's digital repository · A Right to the City exhibition records, Anacostia Community Museum Archives (Smithsonian) · Rainbow History Project Digital Collections · Palisades Community Association · Forest Hills Connection (neighborhood history series) · Foggy Bottom Association History Project: Oral Histories · George Washington University Special Collections Research Center · Woodley Park Community: A Sketch of Our Past · Empower DC: Ivy City · Power of Preserving the Black Deaf Experience (Dig DC) · Gallaudet University Archives. Summaries are ours; the recordings and their rights stay with each archive.