History of Columbia Heights Neighborhood

History of Columbia Heights

Columbia Heights was first a farmland that had no real significance in its presence. But in It slowing was beginning to become a suburb in Washington Dc after the Civil War when people were able to be taken from neighborhoods to the downtown were Columbia Heights was located at.

After Congress passed the D.C Organic Act, the boundaries of DC were expanding. Senator John Sherman purchased the area from what is present day 16^th street and 10^th street creating a subdivision in the city. He named Columbia Heights after his college he so deeply loved.

As the years when by Columbia Heights was beginning to transform. It began to attract people by its change from suburban area to an urban and densely populated area. In 1924 the building of the Tivoli Theater movie house was completed that served as a big attraction for people to come to Columbia Heights.

During the 1940s there were changes in Columbia Heights. Black people were starting to buy apartments buildings from whites and bought homes as well. The neighborhood began to be “middle class” African Americans.

In 1968 after Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination there was a big riot that broke loose in Columbia Heights. Many homes and businesses were destroyed and broke.