Map from Library of Congress, courtesy of Ghosts of DC.
The fantastic Ghosts of DC blog found a great map from the Library of Congress archives. It shows the property values of each block in DC in 1879. Slate blogger Matt Yglesias noticed and pointed out that it shows a time when Logan and Shaw were more expensive than Georgetown.
Actually, the blocks around Logan and the Shaw blocks to the east don’t appear to have that much more of an concentration of darker blocks than Georgetown. But it is true that this map likely captures the moment when Georgetown slowly started to slip behind the rest of the city in terms of economic status.
This is a point GM has discussed many times before. Starting in the late 19th century Georgetown became somewhat of an Irish and African-American slum (although sometimes this is a bit overstated). It’s reputation grew as a rougher part of town through the early 20th century. In the 1930s, Georgetown became one of the first “gentrified” neighborhoods in DC when New Dealers swooped in and bought up the old houses. The rest is history. Continue reading
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
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