Below is an insert from the Shaw Neighborhood Investment Fund Document prepared by the Office of the Deputy Mayor Planning and Economic Development.
As our community changes and evolves with the times and preserves its history, we will work with the office of planning on defining the official name of our neighborhood.
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The Shaw Neighborhood Investment Fund (NIF)
area is located primarily within Wards 2, 5, and 6,
with a small part within the boundaries of Ward 1.
The Shaw NIF area is only 8 sq miles, but it is very
densely populated with about 18,000 residents. The
NIF area includes the Shaw, Mount Vernon Triangle,
and Truxton Circle communities, and is bounded by
Florida Avenue to the north, Massachusetts Ave to the
south, 9th Street to the west and North Capitol Street to
the east.
This neighborhood was originally a collection of
camps for freed slaves in the rural outskirts of the
original city of Washington during the Civil War. It
was named after Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the
commander of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer
Infantry, the first all-Black military company in the
Union army. Prior to the Civil War, the area was very
rural, with most of the land covered with woods and
a few scattered apple orchards. During that period,
the 7th Street commercial corridor was known as
Rockville Turnpike, which served as the main route
for Maryland farmers bringing their goods to the city’s
public markets.
Bates Area Civic Association 
Thanks so much Mr. President for this interesting history lesson. Sharing information like this will help strengthen our neighborhood. Perhaps, taking the lead from Marie at Monday’s BACA meeting, we could do a series of presentations on the history of our community through out this coming summer. We could bring in speakers from the Historic Preservation Review Board, the Office of Planning, local historians, and maybe even a panel of elders, residents in their 70s, 80s and 90s, who would be willing to share their personal experiences and anecdotes. We could run the series this summer at the newly renovated Florida Avenue Park for six to eight consecutive weeks on a certain evening during the week or on the weekend. And we could have a screen set up to show power point presentations with photos from the past or historic films. I think this would be a great way to (1) maintain the park as a safe and inviting place for residents and families and (2) bring neighbors together for the common good of the community.
Commissioner, I am proud to be a resident of such a historic neighborhood and hope that all neighbors, old and new learn to value and appreciate it’s history.
Why does it have to be either/or? What’s so bad about Truxton Circle just being one of the many named small neighborhoods in Shaw? A neighborhood can’t have political clout with the city without a name — we need officials to know where we are and who we are. There’s simply no other way to do it, unless we want to always refer to ourselves as “the area of Shaw bounded by . . . ” Most of the neighborhood known as Logan Circle is in Shaw. Most of the neighborhood known as the U street corridor is in Shaw. It’s my understanding that for awhile the city technically defined Shaw by the boundaries for enrollment in the Shaw middle school, which went west to 13th St., north to U St./Florida, east to North Capitol, and I must admit I am not sure how far south. Shaw has always been one large area that encompassed smaller neighborhoods.
The Shaw Urban Renewal Area identified the Shaw Project Area as: 15th Street to the North, North Capitol to the East, New York Avenue to the South and Florida Avenue/U Street to the North.
what??