Costa Rican float, Hispanic Festival,1987.
middle-class Jewish merchants moving up both the economic ladder and the city’s topography from Southwest or Seventh Street.In the 1880 s, the ambitious and persuasive Mary Foote Henderson had bought vast acreage along 16 th Street and evicted African Americans who had clustered there since the days of Meridian Hill’s Civil War forts. Many moved west across 16 th Street to a small area now known as Reed-Cooke. Then Henderson attracted a number of foreign embassies to occupy mansions she built along 16 th Street.As many of the embassies represented Spanish-speaking governments,their diplomats and domestic help began settling in the area as early as the 1910 s. Between 1930 and the 1950 s,many of Adams Morgan’s posh residents moved on to newer and grander accommodations as the city expanded. Their aged former housing became profitable to subdivide and rent.By the 1960 s affordable Adams Morgan attracted a younger,more ethnically mixed population,including immigrants from nations in political turmoil.Lanier Place became a hubofanti-establishment politics,where Students for a Democratic Society members shared the block with Black Panthers and anti-Vietnam-War organizers.The small buildings along 18 th Street drew artists and musicians. Active and committed residents of this diverse neighborhood succeeded in defeating two federal initiatives that would have destroyed its unique character.Working with others across the city, residents stopped a freeway alongside Florida Avenue that would have cut Adams Morgan off from Downtown.And in 1965 ,thanks in part to the efforts of the Adams Morgan Planning
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