Mount Pleasant

Welcome to Mount Pleasant

Mount Pleasant is a neighborhood in the northwestern quadrant of Washington, D.C. The neighborhood is bounded by Rock Creek Park to the north and west; Harvard Street, NW, and the Adams Morgan neighborhood to the south; and Sixteenth Street, NW, and the Columbia Heights neighborhood to the east. The neighborhood is home to about 10,000 people. In 1727, Charles Calvert, 5th Lord Baltimore (then governor of the Maryland Colony) awarded a land grant for present-day Mount Pleasant to James Holmead. This estate included the territory of present-day Adams Morgan, Columbia Heights, and Pleasant Plains neighborhoods. James's son, Anthony, inherited the estate in 1750 and named it Pleasant Plains. After the United States Congress created the District of Columbia in 1791, the Pleasant Plains estate became part of Washington County, a section of the District lying between what now is Florida Avenue and the Maryland border. The Holmeads gradually sold off all tracts of the Pleasant Plains estate. In the 21st century, the family name is preserved in Holmead Place, a short street located west of Thirteenth Street between Spring and Park Roads NW, in what now is Columbia Heights. During 1794 and 1796, Robert Peter, Georgetown's pioneer businessman, conducted title descriptions. He created maps for tracts of some of his land in Mount Pleasant for transactions with commissioners of the city.

Affluent professionals began returning to the neighborhood in the early 1980s. According to the Washingtonian magazine, housing prices rose nearly as fast as in any area of metropolitan Washington. The new residents renovated many homes, and some projects were featured in local and national magazines. A $1 million "green" renovation was featured in a National Public Radio story. The western four-fifths of the Mount Pleasant area is a largely wooded residential enclave bounded on two sides by Rock Creek Park. Structures in this area are primarily row houses, with some subdivided into one or two apartments. A few of the original 19th-century wood-frame houses remain, mostly north of Park Road. The eastern border of Mount Pleasant, along Sixteenth and Mount Pleasant Streets, is marked by mid-rise apartment buildings. These buildings offer rental apartments, condominiums, and cooperatives. A four-block commercial corridor with convenience shopping in the neighborhood extends along Mount Pleasant Street. In 2008, a large retail development was completed in Columbia Heights, the neighborhood just east of Mount Pleasant.

[Source: Wikipedia]