P Street

P Street refers to four different streets within the city of Washington, D.C. The streets were named by President George Washington in 1791 as part of a general street naming program, in which east-west running streets were named alphabetically and north-south running streets numerically.

P Street NW runs in an easterly direction from North Capitol Street to the eastern boundary of Georgetown University (at 37th Street NW), with an additional block-long section running from the western edge of Glover-Archbold Park to Foxhall Road NW. P Street NW crosses Rock Creek and the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway via the P Street Bridge. P Street NW also crosses Dupont Circle and Logan Circle. P Street NW is the most historic of the four streets, having been the first P Street plotted in the city's history. The northern boundary of the City of Washington in the District of Columbia, as surveyed in July 1795, listed the P Street ford at Rock Creek as the starting point of the city's original northern boundary. The first bridge to carry P Street over the creek was Paper Mill Bridge.

P Street NW was important both commercially and topographically. The P Street ford marked the farthest point at which ocean-going ships could travel up Rock Creek. Slash Run, a major tributary of Rock Creek, began at 1700 P Street. P Street NW was also home to the city's earliest free African American residents. One of the first free blacks to buy property in the city was Lethe Hill, who purchased a lot at P and 30th Streets in 1819. Another free black, William Becraft, bought a home a block away. In time, a large neighborhood of free blacks formed in a 10-block area bounded by P Street NW, Constitution Avenue NW, 16th Street NW, and 6th Street NW. In the 1890s, Riggs Market—one of the city's important (if smaller) markets—was located on P Street NW between 14th and 15th Streets NW.

In 1885, Major General John A. Logan purchased the "Stone Mansion" on Iowa Circle and P Street NW. Three-time presidential candidate William J. Bryan later leased it from the Logans. Congress changed the circle's name to "Logan Circle" in December 1930 in Logan's honor. The Dupont Circle Citizens Association was founded in 1922 in a townhouse at 1767 P Street.

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