Where the West End Is. 

The West End is a neighborhood of Washington, DC, located west of the Central Business District and directly across Rock Creek from Georgetown. As shown on the MapQuest map below, it can easily be found on almost any map of Washington by its location to the northwest of the White House and just south of the place where Rock Creek bends to the east before rebending sharply west.

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When the first map of the City of Washington was published in 1792—based on the design of Pierre L'Enfant and the surveys of Andrew Ellicott—Georgetown was an existing and different town. Rock Creek was the border between Georgetown and Washington. (Click to see a larger version of 1792 map below.)

Georgetown was established in 1751. It remained a separate town and a part of Maryland until 1871 when it was annexed to the District of Columbia. Thus, for the first 80 years of the existence of the City of Washington, today's West End was literally the western end of the new city.

Like most neighborhoods, the West End evolved over time, and the name was used to describe different areas at different times. During the 1880s, the term West End referred to the fashionable streets to the west of the White House, where many army and navy officers built expensive homes. It later included much of the area that is known today as Dupont Circle. The West End then referred mostly to the better parts of the area, where well-to-do white residents lived and built large, single-family houses.

Later, after Dupont Circle became established as a fashionable area, the name West End took on a very different connotation. It was used for much the same area as we know today, much of it on the eastern bank of Rock Creek. It was there that the poorest people and many of the most recent arrivals to Washington lived between the Civil War and World War I. It became primarily an African-American neighborhood where absentee owners rented small townhouses, including some tiny units located in alleys.

The West End became the site of The Blue Mouse, one of the few movie houses in Washington that black residents could attend. In 1929, as part of the District's segregated school and recreational systems, the government located Francis Swimming Pool and Francis Junior High School in the West End as "colored" facilities. Whites swam and went to school elsewhere until the facilities were desegregated in 1956.

Much of the land north of M Street was zoned for light industry. By the 1960s, the West End had become a bleak and rundown area, where many buildings had been torn down or were vacant. Parking cars seemed to be the area's major business. 

In 1972 the West End was designated as an urban renewed area by the District and Federal governments. It was rezoned to allow redevelopment as a mixed-use residential neighborhood, with several new hotels and office buildings planned.

The map shown above, prepared by the District of Columbia's Office of Planning and Management, defined the West End specifically and officially. (Click on the map for a larger version.) It uses the natural boundary of Rock Creek on the west, and the limited access portion of K Street on the south.  To the north, the area is bounded by Rock Creek and N Street, and on the east by New Hampshire Avenue. Few neighborhoods of the city have ever been so well defined.

After the 2000 federal census, the District, for voting purposes, defined Precinct 4 of Ward 2 along very similar boundaries, the only major difference being the eastern boundary, for which 20th Street NW was used. This is another way of looking at the West End. For its voter registration drive in 2010, West End Friends used the Precinct 4 boundaries. (Click on the Precinct 4 map for a larger version.)

Many businesses and buildings now use "West End" in their names. These include the West End Branch Library (a part of the District's library system), the West End Bistro at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and the West End Cinema. There are residential  buildings named West End Flats, West End Residences, and West End 25.

Today's West End, due in large part to the 1972 urban renewal plan, is a well-defined, vibrant neighborhood that contains several of the best hotels and restaurants in Washington, and several of the most luxurious and most desirable residential buildings. It has an active and evolving civic life that the West End Friends group is attempting to maintain, promote, and improve.