Lanier Heights

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lanier Heights is a neighborhood in Northwest Washington, D.C., bounded by Adams Mill Road to the west and south, Columbia Road to the southeast, and Harvard Street to the north. Actually, there is some confusion as to whether Lanier Heights is an independent neighborhood: according to some city officials and statutes, it is; according to others, it is a section of Adams Morgan.

The confusion arises from the fact that Adams Morgan was created out of sections of preexisting neighborhoods, one of which was Lanier Heights; however, some sources state that Adams Morgan is simply a renaming of the entire Lanier Heights neighborhood. [1] As a result, many of Lanier Heights' residents consider themselves to live in Adams Morgan, while others consider themselves residents of a separate neighborhood between Adams Morgan to the south and Mount Pleasant to the north.

Lanier Heights was established in the 1880s, shortly after the 1878 act of Congress that extended Washington's boundaries to include all of the District of Columbia. It was planned by a banker, A.M. McLachlen, and Smithsonian biologist George Brown Goode specifically as a residential community for Smithsonian employees. It slowly grew into a larger, affluent population — a white community in strictly segregated Washington.

Ever since desegregation, however, Lanier Heights has joined with the surrounding communities to become one of the most diverse residential communities in Washington. Housing prices have skyrocketed, making it also one of the most in-demand communities.