Petworth

Originally the site of two country estates, the 204-acre Petworth estate and the 183-acre Marshall Brown estate, Petworth began in an unincorporated part of the District of Columbia. Late in the 1880s, following incorporation into the city, the estates were purchased with the intent of expansion. The neighborhood blossomed following the enlargement of the Georgia Avenue streetcar line.

Petworth is an affordable residential neighborhood in the northwest of Washington, D.C. It is inclusive and family friendly, with boundaries defined by Georgia Avenue, North Capitol Street, Rock Creek Church Road, and Missouri Avenue NW.

Today, the neighborhood is primarily residential and contains a blend of townhouses, rowhouses and single-family homes. Many of the thousands of similar brick rowhouses in Petworth were constructed in the 1920s and ‘30s by D.J. Dunigan Co. and Cafritz Builders. Notably, Dunigan himself donated the land that would later become the site for St. Gabriel’s Church and School.