History

Mentions of Dupont Circle in the Evening Star, October 31 – November 6, 1926. Searched for "Dupont Circle", "Du Pont Circle".

Clips are machine-read text (OCR) from scanned Evening Star pages on the Library of Congress's Chronicling America, lightly cleaned (line-break hyphens rejoined, stray symbols removed); misspellings are the scanner's. Newspapers this old are public domain. Each clip links to its page at loc.gov. Clips that mention race, covenants, deed restrictions or slurs are skipped automatically (keyword list: race, races, racial, colored, coloured, negro, negroes, white only, whites only, for whites, white people, white persons, white residents, caucasian, segregation, segregated, covenant, covenants, restricted, restriction, restrictions, plus a list of slurs), because they need an editor's context; legal notices and lists of private individuals are skipped too.

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  Dupont Circle · 1943 MayWashington, D.C. Dupont Circle
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  Dupont Circle fountain · 1943 JulyWashington, D.C. Children playing in a fountain in Dupont Circle
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  15 Dupont Circle · [1927][The Patterson House, owned by Mrs. Elmer Schlesinger, 15 Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C.]
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  Dupont Circle & New Hampshire Ave · [between 1900 and 1906]Dupont Circle and New Hampshire Avenue, Washington, D.C.
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  Near Dupont Circle · [ca. 1925]Dupont National Bank building, near Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C.
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  Connecticut Ave near Dupont Circle · 1942 AprWashington, D.C. Flower stand in a parking lot on Connecticut Avenue near Dupont Circle
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  1307 New Hampshire Ave NW · after 1933Christian Heurich Mansion, 1307 New Hampshire Avenue Northwest, Washington, District of Columbia, DC

Photographs from the Library of Congress (Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information photograph collection; National Photo Company Collection; Detroit Publishing Company photograph collection; Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection; Historic American Buildings Survey), each with no known restrictions on publication or in the public domain, per the Library. Titles are the Library's, written when the photos were catalogued; some use the language of their time. Each links to its record.

Connecticut Avenue NW1791 (L'Enfant plan)

Honors: State of Connecticut

L'Enfant drew it in 1791 from the White House to Boundary Street. By the 1920s its stretch above the circle had turned commercial, with mansions replaced by shops and offices. A deck over the underpass between the circle and Q Street began construction in 2025.

Sources: Connecticut Avenue - Wikipedia · Dupont Circle - Wikipedia

Dupont Circle1882

Honors: Rear Adm. Samuel Francis Du Pont, Union naval officer

The Army Corps of Engineers began the circle in 1871 as Pacific Circle, following L'Enfant's plan. Congress renamed it on February 25, 1882, and a statue of Du Pont was unveiled in 1884. The family moved the statue to Wilmington in 1917 and commissioned the present fountain by Daniel Chester French.

Earlier: Pacific CircleSource: Dupont Circle - Wikipedia

Florida Avenue NW1890

Honors: State of Florida

The historic district's northwest edge. It was Boundary Street, the northern limit of L'Enfant's city, until the city grew past it and renamed it in 1890.

Earlier: Boundary StreetSources: List of state-named roadways in Washington, D.C. - Wikipedia · Florida Avenue - Wikipedia

Massachusetts Avenue NW1791 (L'Enfant plan)

Honors: State of Massachusetts

Part of L'Enfant's 1791 plan and, at 160 feet, tied with Pennsylvania Avenue as the widest road in the city. The two run in parallel and were named for the two states that led in securing independence. Mansions rose along it near the circle in the 1870s and 1880s, and it is now Embassy Row.

Sources: Massachusetts Avenue (Washington, D.C.) - Wikipedia · Dupont Circle - Wikipedia

New Hampshire Avenue NW

Honors: State of New Hampshire

A state-named diagonal through the circle. Its southern section runs from F Street near the Kennedy Center to 15th Street and Florida Avenue; a separate northern section runs from Columbia Heights into Maryland.

Sources: List of state-named roadways in Washington, D.C. - Wikipedia · New Hampshire Avenue - Wikipedia

P Street NW1791

Named in 1791 when George Washington's plan gave east-west streets letters. The 1795 survey of the city's northern boundary began at the P Street ford on Rock Creek, and the first bridge there was the Paper Mill Bridge. P Street crosses the circle on its way to Georgetown.

Source: P Street - Wikipedia

Rhode Island Avenue NW

Honors: State of Rhode Island

A state-named artery that begins at M Street and Connecticut Avenue, passes Logan Circle and leaves the District in Woodridge, carrying U.S. 1 for much of its length.

Source: List of state-named roadways in Washington, D.C. - Wikipedia

Swann Street NW2022 (rededication)

Honors: Believed to be Thomas Swann, Maryland governor and congressman; rededicated to William Dorsey Swann

The street is believed to have been named for Thomas Swann, a 19th-century Maryland governor and congressman. In 2022 the Dupont Circle ANC passed a resolution dedicating it instead to William Dorsey Swann, a formerly enslaved Washingtonian known as the first person to call himself a queen of drag. A marker went up in 2025 at T Street Park.

Sources: Swann Street Has a New Name: Swann Street (Washingtonian, 2022) · William Dorsey Swann - Wikipedia

Still looking for a reliable source on Corcoran Street NW, Riggs Place NW, Hillyer Place NW, Church Street NW, Sunderland Place NW, Jefferson Place NW, Newport Place NW, Hopkins Street NW, Bataan Street NW. We don't publish a name's story until we can cite one. Know it? Tell us.

• Oral history interview with Sean Roach, 1951 -Sean Roach · 2014 · audio · remembers the 1960s, 1970s

  Roach, a Georgetown University student from 1969 to 1973 who joined the Washington Gay Liberation Front in 1970, describes the group's activities, the relationship between the Gay Liberation Front House and its Dupont Circle neighbors, gay hangouts and bars, and job hunting as a gay man.

  At Rainbow History Project Oral History Collection · Gay Liberation Front, Gay Liberation Front House, bars
• Oral history interview with Helene Bloom, 1943-Helene Bloom · 2015 · audio · remembers the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s

  Bloom, co-owner of Soho Tea & Coffee on P Street, describes Washington's LGBTQ community from 1974 on, marches for gay and women's causes in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the bars, dance clubs and other LGBTQ spaces of Dupont Circle.

  At Rainbow History Project Oral History Collection · Soho Tea & Coffee, LGBTQ spaces, marches
• Oral History Interview with Fran Levine, 1952-Fran Levine · 2015 · audio · remembers the 1980s, 1990s, 2010s

  Levine, Bloom's co-owner at Soho on P Street, describes changes in Dupont Circle from the late 1980s as an independent business owner, the neighborhood's LGBTQ bars and clubs and Soho as a gathering place, the community's response to AIDS, and the loss of gay gathering spaces.

  At Rainbow History Project Oral History Collection · Soho Tea & Coffee, small business, AIDS epidemic
• Oral history interview with Robert MiailovichRobert Miailovich · 2001 · audio · remembers the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s

  Miailovich, founder of Dignity-DC, discusses gay life and the Catholic group from the 1970s on. The recording ends with a short 2001 group segment with Darrell Trotman and Eric Newman, a couple of 30 years; the archive notes Trotman had lived in Dupont Circle since 1964.

  At Rainbow History Project Oral History Collection · Dignity-DC, Catholic LGBT community
• Oral History Interview with Tom Bower, 1948-Thomas Bower · 2016 · audio · remembers the 1960s, 1970s

  Recorded at Bower's home in the Dupont Circle neighborhood. An early organizer of Dignity's Washington chapter and a longtime Smithsonian museum worker, he talks about being both Catholic and gay, how D.C. Catholics embraced Dignity, and the times the church rejected it.

  At Rainbow History Project Oral History Collection · Dignity-DC, Catholic and gay, Smithsonian
• Oral History Interview with William Wooby, 1947-William Wooby · 2019 · audio · remembers the 1960s, 1980s

  Wooby came from New York after Army service, worked at the gay clubs Lost and Found and Pier 9, and later owned The Collector Art Gallery Restaurant, first on U Street and then in Dupont Circle. He helped organize the 1989 artists' protest after the Corcoran canceled its Mapplethorpe show.

  At Rainbow History Project Oral History Collection · Collector Art Gallery Restaurant, Mapplethorpe protest, gay bars
• Oral History with Mike SilversteinMike Silverstein · audio · remembers the 1960s, 2010s

  Silverstein, a 30-year ABC News veteran who later served on the Dupont Circle ANC, recalls hearing about Stonewall on the news, meeting other gay Washingtonians at Lost & Found, and driving Frank Kameny in the 2010 Capital Pride Parade.

  At Rainbow History Project Oral History Collection · Stonewall, Frank Kameny, ANC 2B
• Jane talks about the influence of Lambda Rising and its Book ReportJane Troxell · video · remembers the 1970s, 1980s

  A short video story in the DC History Center's hometown DC exhibition. Troxell recalls Lambda Rising, the Dupont Circle bookstore opened in 1974, and its Lambda Book Report, whose reviews helped publishers and readers take gay and lesbian authors seriously.

  At DC History Center (hometown DC) · Lambda Rising, LGBTQ books
• Armonté reminisces about his Dad taking him to the Dupont Circle Snowball FightArmonté Butler · video · remembers the 2010s

  A short video story in the DC History Center's hometown DC exhibition. Butler remembers his father taking him to the annual Dupont Circle snowball fight that began after the 2010 Snowmageddon storm, and how those outings shaped his tie to the city.

  At DC History Center (hometown DC) · snowball fight, family, Dupont Circle park

Search the archives yourself: The People's Archive, DC Public Library · Historic Chevy Chase DC Oral History Archive · Humanities Truck Community Archive, American University · Tenleytown Historical Society · Boundary Stones (WETA) · Glover Park History: Oral History and Reminiscences · Cleveland Park Historical Society Oral Histories · Rainbow History Project Digital Collections · hometown DC (DC History Center) · Hola Cultura: Adams Morgan History · Citizens Association of Georgetown · Peabody Room, Georgetown Neighborhood Library (DC Public Library) · Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum Archives: A Right to the City Exhibition Records · Ruth Ann Overbeck Capitol Hill History Project · Mosaic Theater H Street Oral History Project · Library of Congress, Manuscript Division · Anacostia Community Museum Archives (Smithsonian) · Naval History and Heritage Command, Navy Department Library · The Catholic University of America Archives · Bygone Brookland · Dig DC, DC Public Library · hometown DC (HumanitiesDC / Historical Society of Washington, D.C.) · Dig DC, DC Public Library's digital repository · A Right to the City exhibition records, Anacostia Community Museum Archives (Smithsonian) · Rainbow History Project Digital Collections · Palisades Community Association · Forest Hills Connection (neighborhood history series). Summaries are ours; the recordings and their rights stay with each archive.

• DC Historic Preservation Office, Historic Data on DC Buildings (HistoryQuest), CC BY 4.0
• Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), Chronicling America, Library of Congress; public domain

History data refreshed Nov 1.