Pool players on U Street, 1940s
After the war, public streetcars began to run north from downtown into this area, opening it for residential development. Craftsmen and builders, government employees, professionals and working people, black and white, moved into the houses you see today. Almost all of these fine brick homes were built between 1870 and 1900 , making this neighborhood an outdoor museum of late Victorian rowhouse architec- ture. Smaller houses lined hidden alleys in the larger blocks, where people of few means could afford to live. The neighborhood attracted some of the leading African American intellectuals of the day, as well as families of all economic levels, some descended from Washington’s large pre-Civil War free black community. As racial segregation tight- ened in the late 19 th century, the neighborhood became the heart of black Washington. Former residents remember that part of the strength of this community was the mixture of people from all walks of life who lived side-by-side — labor- ers, craftsmen, government employees, and pro- fessors — who, despite their differences, created a viable community that supported its people and inspired its youth. By 1920 , more than 300 black businesses clus- tered in this vicinity, and U Street became the community’s boulevard. Three first-run movie theaters, nightclubs and ballrooms, poolhalls and stores operated alongside the offices of black doctors, dentists, and lawyers. In the 1930 s and 1940 s, the likes of Cab Calloway, Pearl Bailey, Sarah Vaughn, Jelly Roll Morton, and native son Duke Ellington played on and around U Street, and hung out at after-hours clubs in a scene so full of magic that it was dubbed Washington’s
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