14th Street Northwest and Southwest (Washington, D.C.)

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The renovated Tivoli Theatre in Columbia Heights at the intersection of Park Road NW is part of 14th Street's recent economic development.

Fourteenth Street is a street in the northwest and southwest quadrants of Washington, D.C.'s street grid, located 1¼ mi. (2 km) west of the U.S. Capitol. It runs from the 14th Street Bridge north to Eastern Avenue.

Northbound U.S. Route 1 runs along 14th Street from the bridge to Constitution Avenue, where it turns east with US 50. US 1 southbound used to use 15th Street, N.W. due to left turns being banned from westbound Constitution Avenue onto 14th Street, but it now uses the Ninth Street Tunnel, five blocks to the east. 14th Street crosses the National Mall and runs near the White House and through the western side of Washington's Logan Circle neighborhood.

Because it connects to the main bridge leading into Virginia, 14th Street has always been a major transportation corridor. It was the location of one of the first streetcar lines, and today, it is the location of several afternoon slug lines (impromptu carpooling), so that commuters may meet the high-occupancy vehicle requirements of the Henry G. Shirley Memorial Highway.

[edit] History

In the middle of the 20th century, 14th Street NW was home to many car dealerships and known as "auto row." The area surrounding 14th and U Streets is often thought of as Washington's "Harlem", and the police once considered this section of the city to be the most volatile of the "negro districts".[1] During the 1960s, the street would become the location of several race riots, most notably in 1968 after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.[2] In the 1980s, 14th Street became known primarily for its red-light district, located roughly between New York Avenue and K Street. However, rising land values pushed out the adult businesses. The Source Theatre, founded by Bart Whiteman, was given some credit for the area's revival. Whiteman would stand outside the theater to escort people inside in order to make them feel safer [3]. As of 2005, with the gentrification of the neighborhoods through which it passes — particularly downtown, Logan Circle, the U Street Corridor, and Columbia Heights — 14th Street is known for live theater, cutting-edge art galleries, and trendy restaurants. Moreover, while the nominal center of the city's gay life is still Dupont Circle, Washington Blade called 14th Street between U Street and Massachusetts Avenue (Thomas Circle) the best place to see and be seen.^[1]