Penn Quarter, Washington, D.C.

Penn Quarter is a neighborhood in the East End of downtown Washington, D.C., located just north of Pennsylvania Avenue, halfway between the White House and the U.S. Capitol Building — between 3rd Street on the east and 15th Street on the west, Pennsylvania Avenue on the south and New York and Massachusetts avenues on the north. Penn Quarter has been rejuvenated over the past several decades, stimulated first by the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation and later, following the recession in the 1990s by the Verizon Center, which opened in 1997 as the MCI Center. Penn Quarter now boasts quality museums, theaters, designer clothing stores, destination restaurants, and contemporary art galleries. Over the past decade, Penn Quarter has expanded to include the city's dwindling Chinatown as well as commercial and residential blocks that adjoined the nucleus of this downtown neighborhood. Penn Quarter has roughly 10,000 residents. [http://pqliving.com/?p=164]

Revitalization

Penn Quarter's initial growth occurred under the auspices of the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation whose Pennsylvania Avenue Plan called for a mixed-use neighborhood that included residences, offices, theaters and other cultural venues, retail, and restaurants in both new and renovated buildings framing new parks and plazas. The former flagship store of Lansburgh's department store on 7th Street was at the forefront of the revitalization. ["Lansburgh's Renovation Contract Let," by John Mintz, "The Washington Post", Apr 2, 1987, p. A1.] The nearby Verizon Center, which opened in 1997, stimulated the revitalization of adjacent blocks to the north and east and expanded the Penn Quarter neighborhood so that it now encompasses Chinatown.

Penn Quarter is home to many restaurants, cultural, and entertainment venues in Washington, D.C. Dozens of new restaurants and shops have recently opened for business both on and off of the 7th Street entertainment district. On Thursday afternoons during summer, the FRESHFARM Penn Quarter farmers market is open on 8th Street, just south of E Street. The Newseum, which opened April 11, 2008, is located at the intersection of 6th Street and Pennsylvania NW. The building also includes office and television studio space, rental apartments, and a restaurant. Penn Quarter is a culturally rich neighborhood with more legitimate theaters (seven currently, nine when two now under construction are completed) and performance spaces and museums than any other neighborhood in the metropolitan area.

The neighborhood includes recreational facilities such as Lucky Strike bowling and multiple exercise clubs. Other neighborhood amenities include: several coffee shops; Teaism, a teahouse and restaurant; Cowgirl Creamery on F Street between 9th and 10th, which has a wide selection of cheeses; three salons and day spas: Celadon, Saint Germain, and Toka; Coup de Foudre lingerie; several bookstores; the Landmark E Street Cinema, which shows independent films; Regal Theater; and several ice cream shops: Gifford's Ice Cream and Candy shop, Häagen Dazs, two Ben & Jerry's and a Maggie Moo's. Over the past thirty years the neighborhood has transformed from a sleepy, nondescript part of downtown into a vibrant 24-hour community with an abundant number of new upscale apartment and condominium complexes.

Notable places

Attractions located in Penn Quarter include:
* Ford's Theatre
* Shakespeare Theatre Company at the Harman Center for the Arts - includes the Lansburgh Theatre and Sidney Harman Hall
* National Theatre
* Warner Theatre
* Flashpoint
* Warehouse Theater
* International Spy Museum
* J. Edgar Hoover Building - FBI headquarters
* Marian Koshland Science Museum - National Academy of Sciences
* National Archives
* National Building Museum
* National Gallery of Art
* Newseum - Freedom Forum
* National Museum of Women in the Arts
* U.S. Navy Memorial
* Verizon Center
* Goethe-Institut
* Calvary Baptist Church
* Smithsonian American Art Museum
* National Portrait Gallery
* [http://www.woollymammoth.net Woolly Mammoth Theater Company]
* Zenith Gallery
* Touchstone Gallery
* Canadian Embassy
* Booth Alley
* Weschler's Auction House

Area events

* [http://www.artsonfoot.org Arts on Foot]
* [http://www.capfringe.org Capital Fringe Festival]
* [http://www.freshfarmmarket.org Farmer's Market]
* [http://culturaldc.org/scene/3rd_thursday.html 3rd Thursday Art Crawls]
* [http://dcshorts.com DC Shorts Film Festival]
* [http://www.weschlers.com Weschler's Tuesday Auction]

Transportation

Penn Quarter is served by the Archives–Navy Memorial–Penn Quarter, Metro Center, Judiciary Square, and Gallery Place-Chinatown Metro stations by the Metrobus Bus & by Circulator bus, which connects Georgetown, Union Station, and the attractions on The Mall to Penn Quarter.

References

* Zibart, Eve Penn Ultimate, Washington Post. September 10, 2004. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8703-2004Sep9.html]

External links

* [http://www.pqliving.com Penn Quarter Living Blog]