Ivy City, Washington, D.C.

Ivy City
Neighborhood
Ivy City Roundhouse. Washington, D. C. 1977
Ivy City within the District of Columbia
Coordinates: 38°54′36″N 76°59′30″W / 38.9099°N 76.9917°W / 38.9099; -76.9917Coordinates: 38°54′36″N 76°59′30″W / 38.9099°N 76.9917°W / 38.9099; -76.9917
Country	United States
Territory	Washington, D.C.
Constructed	1873

Ivy City is a small neighborhood in Northeast Washington, D.C., in the United States. About half the neighborhood is industrial or formerly industrial, dominated by warehouses. The Ivy City Yard, a railroad coach yard and maintenance facility for the passenger railroad Amtrak, is situated northwest across New York Avenue NE. Ivy City was laid out as a suburban development for African Americans in 1873. Development was slow. From 1879 to 1901, the neighborhood hosted the Ivy City Racetrack, a major horse racing facility in the District of Columbia. Construction on the rail yard began in 1907 and was complete within a year, although much of the facilities there were demolished in 1953 and 1954 as railroads switched from coal-fired locomotives to diesel-fueled or electric engines. The Alexander Crummell School, a major focal point of the community, opened in 1911. After some years of enrollment decline, it closed in 1972 but has not been demolished. The area has undergone some gentrification in the 21st century, although people living in the residential core of Ivy City remain very poor and unemployment is high.

Ivy City is on a triangular strip of land in the central part of the Northeast quadrant, bounded by New York Avenue to the northwest, West Virginia Avenue to the east, and Mt. Olivet Road to the south. The neighborhood is unusual in that it is also surrounded on all sides by significant landmarks: Gallaudet University (across Mt. Olivet Rd.), Mount Olivet Cemetery (across West Virginia Ave.), and Amtrak's Ivy City yard (across New York Avenue).

Ivy City is located in Ward 5. When founded, the neighborhood was outside the boundaries of the L'Enfant Plan for the city of Washington within the District of Columbia.

In 1831, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) received approval for a plan to build its Washington Branch, and passenger train service between Baltimore and Washington began in 1835. The track was built from the District border with Maryland to Boundary Avenue (now Florida Avenue) along the route of the then-unbuilt West Virginia Avenue.