riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Many left after the destructive 1968 Washington, D.C. with the end of legal segregation, middle-class residents of both races left the area. Segregation marked the emergence of this large area of well-preserved Victorian row houses as a predominately African-American community the unofficial dividing line was 16th Street NW, several blocks to the west, with Logan Circle and its older homes sandwiched in between.ĭuring this period, the original Victorian homes in the area were subdivided into apartments, hostels, and rooming houses. Further north, "14th and U" became synonymous with a large African-American community, later known as Shaw, which encompassed parts of Logan Circle and U Street to the north. In the early 20th century, 14th Street NW rose to prominence as a main shopping district for both black and white Washingtonians on the edge of downtown Washington D.C., and became known as an area for auto showrooms. On April 9, 1901, the 25 feet (7.6 m) monument was dedicated by President William McKinley, Senator Chauncey Depew, and General Grenville M. Logan, an equestrian statue of Logan sculpted by Franklin Simmons and a bronze statue base designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt. At the center of the circle stands Major General John A.
representative and senator for the state of Illinois, who lived at 4 Logan Circle. Logan, Commander of the Army of the Tennessee during the Civil War, Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, and U.S. Originally known as Iowa Circle, the park was renamed by Congress in 1930 in honor of John A. Logan equestrian statue stands in the center of Logan Circle. Many of the larger and more ornate homes came with carriage houses and attached servant's quarters, which were later converted to apartments and rooming houses as the upper middle class moved elsewhere. As a result, the area saw development of successive blocks of Victorian row houses marketed to the upper middle class, which sought to give Washington the reputation, modeled after European capitals, of a city of broad boulevards and well-manicured parks. Streetcar tracks were laid into what was then a very swampy area north of downtown Washington, to encourage development of the original Washington City Plan. In the 1870s, streets, elm trees, and other amenities were installed by Washington Mayor Alexander Robey Shepherd, who encouraged the development of the area. 19th century ĭuring the Civil War, present-day Logan Circle was home to Camp Barker, former barracks converted into a refugee camp for newly freed slaves from nearby Virginia and Maryland.