INDUSTRIAL LAND IN A POST-INDUSTRIAL CITY District of ...

District of Columbia Industrial Areas Study DC Office of Planning
Prepared by Phillips Preiss Shapiro Associates, Inc.
A B&O route along the eastern shore of the Anacostia River, paralleling Minnesota
Avenue for much of its route (today this is both a CSX freight and Metro corridor, and
may host a portion of a proposed light rail line);
The Baltimore and Potomac Railroad line, which runs through the Southeast and
spurred the development of industrial land in the Buzzard Point and Navy Yard areas,
and continues east through 11th Street, SE and Water Street, SE before crossing the
Anacostia and joining the B&O near Minnesota Avenue and E Street, SE (today this is a
CSX freight corridor, and may host a portion of a proposed light rail line).
Residential areas appear just beyond these railroad-hugging industrial lands; today’s land use
mix is still reflective of this close proximity of industrial and residential uses. The area of
Buzzard Point just east of South Capitol Street and west of the Navy Yard is one of the few
areas that saw industrial development exclusively in the 1900s, though even that began as an
area of mixed residential and industrial uses. Machine works, lumberyards, warehouses, and
wholesale food stores dominated this area, and many of those buildings remain standing
today. 10
Table 2.16 below shows the total amount of industrial land in the District by sub-area. Including
land that is zoned for non-PDR uses, the areas examined by this study total only 2,390 acres,
which represents just over five percent of the District’s total 43,850 acres of land area (including
Federal land inside the District). The combined total of DC Village and Blue Plains represents
the largest area, although only the eastern half, DC Village, is practically available for industrial
development (Blue Plains is a secure limited-access area containing the District’s wastewater
treatment plant). The next largest areas are concentrated along the CSX rail corridors and New
York Avenue area.
10 For more information on the industrial history of the District and architecturally significant industrial buildings, see
Traceries. 1992. DC Warehouse Survey Phase II Final Report. Prepared for the DC Historic Preservation Division.
Washington, DC. July.
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