Dupont Circle Historic District
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The Dupont Circle Fountain in 2010.
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Location | Roughly bounded by Rhode Island Avenue, NW; M and N Sts., NW, on the south; Florida Avenue, NW, on the west; Swann St., NW, on the north; and the 16th Street Historic District on the east |
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Coordinates | 38°54′35″N 77°02′36″W / 38.90962°N 77.04341°WCoordinates: 38°54′35″N 77°02′36″W / 38.90962°N 77.04341°W |
Area | 170 acres (69 ha) |
Architect | Mead McKim & White; Carrere & Hastings |
Architectural style | Late 19th And 20th Century Revivals, Queen Anne, Romanesque |
NRHP Reference # |
78003056 (original) 85000238 (increase 1) 05000539 (increase 2) |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | July 21, 1978 |
Boundary increases | February 6, 1985 June 10, 2005 |
Dupont Circle is a traffic circle, park, neighborhood, and historic district in Northwest Washington, D.C. The traffic circle is located at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue NW, Connecticut Avenue NW, New Hampshire Avenue NW, P Street NW, and 19th Street NW. The Dupont Circle neighborhood is bounded approximately by 16th Street NW to the east, 22nd Street NW to the west, M Street NW to the south, and Florida Avenue NW to the north. The local government Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC 2B) and the Dupont Circle Historic District have slightly different boundaries. The circle is named for Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont.
Dupont Circle is located in the "Old City" of Washington, D.C.—the area planned by architect Pierre Charles L'Enfant—but remained largely undeveloped until after the American Civil War, when there was a large influx of new residents. The area that now constitutes Dupont Circle was once home to a brickyard and slaughterhouse. There also was a creek, Slash Run, that began near 15th Street NW and Columbia Road NW, ran from 16th Street near Adams Morgan, through Kalorama and within a block of Dupont Circle, but the creek has since been enclosed in a sewer line. Improvements made in the 1870s by a board of public works headed by Alexander "Boss" Shepherd transformed the area into a fashionable residential neighborhood.