Dupont Circle

Planned by architect Pierre Charles L’Enfant, Dupont Circle remained generally undeveloped until after the Civil War. Located in northwest Washington, D.C., Dupont Circle shares its name with a historic district, traffic circle and park. During the 1870s and 80s, Massachusetts Avenue became populated with mansions while townhouses were built throughout the neighborhood. Homes include rowhouses chiefly built before 1900, rare stately mansions, freestanding houses built in the genres popular in the late 1800s and Italianates. Connecticut Avenue developed as a commercial area.

Dupont Circle, located in the “Old City” of D.C., is served by the Washington Metro Red Line at the Dupont Circle Metro station. As development continued, traffic congestion made it necessary to modify the traffic circle, adding tunnels and an underground streetcar station that functioned until 1962.

Following a collaborative endeavor to recover from decades of damage done following 1968 riots over the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., gentrification has precipitated the area’s becoming a more popular location with chic retail shops, coffeehouses, restaurants and bars.