History

Mentions of NoMa in the Evening Star, October 31 – November 6, 1926. Searched for "Sibley Hospital", Eckington, "North Capitol street", "Government Printing Office".

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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  Government Printing Office · [between 1909 and 1932][Machine shop in the Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.]
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  Government Printing Office site · [between 1918 and 1920][Houses on present site of the Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.]
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  Eckington Yards · [19]23 June 4Eckington Yards, 6/4/23
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  Eckington Yards · March 1919 [date received]Kitchen of American Red Cross canteen hut, Eckington Yards, Washington, D.C.
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  Union Station rail yard · [between 1909 and 1932][Railroad yard at Union Station, Washington, D.C.]
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  Florida Ave & Eckington Pl NE · [between 1913 and 1925]Judd & Detweiler, [Printing plant at Florida Avenue and Eckington Place, N.E., Washington, D.C.]

Photographs from the Library of Congress (National Photo Company Collection; American National Red Cross photograph collection), 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.

Alethia Tanner Park2019

Honors: Alethia Tanner, formerly enslaved Washington educator and entrepreneur

A 2.5-acre former rail-yard site on the Metropolitan Branch Trail, opened in June 2020; more than 2,100 people took part in the naming vote. Tanner, born enslaved in Maryland in the 1780s, bought her freedom in 1810 and helped fund schools for free Black children. The Council made the name official in 2019.

Sources: Alethia Tanner Park (NoMa Parks Foundation) · Alethia Tanner Park (The Cultural Landscape Foundation)

Columbus Circle NE1912 (fountain unveiled)

Honors: Christopher Columbus

The plaza in front of Union Station where Massachusetts, Delaware and Louisiana Avenues meet. The station opened in 1907 on leveled Swampoodle land, and the space was first called Union Station Plaza. Its Columbus Fountain, designed by Daniel Burnham with sculpture by Lorado Taft, was unveiled on June 8, 1912.

Earlier: Union Station Plaza, Plaza of Union StationSource: Columbus Circle (Washington, D.C.) - Wikipedia

Delaware Avenue NE

Honors: State of Delaware

One of four avenues radiating from the Capitol. North of Massachusetts Avenue it once ran toward Florida Avenue, but the Union Station project buried that stretch under the rail tracks. Only one block, between L and M Streets NE, survives in NoMa.

Sources: List of state-named roadways in Washington, D.C. - Wikipedia · Swampoodle (Washington, D.C.) - Wikipedia

Florida Avenue NE1890

Honors: State of Florida

Drawn in L'Enfant's 1791 plan as Boundary Street, the northern edge of the original city; its first stretch, between North Capitol and 2nd Street NE, opened in 1818. The Board of Commissioners renamed it Florida Avenue on January 14, 1890, after property owners complained that the old name was hurting land values.

Earlier: Boundary StreetSources: Florida Avenue - Wikipedia (cites Washington Post, Jan. 15, 1890) · List of state-named roadways in Washington, D.C. - Wikipedia · Following Florida Avenue: The Original Boundary of the City of Washington (DC Historic Sites, DC Preservation League)

Mamie "Peanut" Johnson Plaza2023

Honors: Mamie "Peanut" Johnson, first woman to pitch in the Negro League and a longtime DC resident

The new public spaces at the rebuilt Florida and New York Avenues NE intersection, long known as Dave Thomas Circle. More than 4,300 people voted in a naming process run by the NoMa BID, and the mayor announced the name in October 2023, alongside a $41 million DDOT safety redesign.

Earlier: Dave Thomas CircleSource: Mayor Bowser Celebrates Renaming of Redesigned NoMa Intersection to 'Mamie Peanut Johnson Plaza' (DC Mayor's Office of Community Affairs, Oct. 11, 2023)

New York Avenue NE1791 (L'Enfant Plan)

Honors: State of New York

A diagonal in L'Enfant's 1791 plan that originally stopped at Boundary Street (now Florida Avenue). Extending it was discussed from 1899. In 1907, while Union Station was going up, the B&O railroad had to build a bridge carrying New York Avenue over its new diversion track into the station.

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

NoMa1998 (citizens' plan)

Short for 'north of Massachusetts Avenue.' The NoMa BID traces the name to a 1998 citizens' economic plan that proposed a mixed-use technology, media and housing district here and called for a New York Avenue Metro stop, which opened in 2004. Property owners formed the BID in 2007. Wikipedia says the name echoes New York's SoHo and TriBeCa.

Sources: About NoMa: History (NoMa Business Improvement District) · NoMa - Wikipedia

North Capitol Street

Runs straight north from the Capitol grounds and divides the Northwest and Northeast quadrants. Tiber Creek, whose floods gave Swampoodle its name, was put into a large brick sewer along the line of the street in the 1870s, during Alexander Shepherd's public works program.

Sources: North Capitol Street - Wikipedia · Swampoodle: The Lost Irish Neighborhood Union Station Erased (Ghosts of DC, 2026)

Swampoodle1850s

An Irish immigrant enclave on the low ground around Tiber Creek near North Capitol and H Streets. The name describes its swamps and puddles; a reporter covering St. Aloysius Church is credited with coining it, in 1857 by most accounts or 1859 per a 1922 Post retrospective. Union Station and its rail yard razed much of it from 1907.

Sources: Swampoodle: The Lost Irish Neighborhood Union Station Erased (Ghosts of DC, 2026) · Swampoodle (Washington, D.C.) - Wikipedia · Swampoodle (Boundary Stones, WETA)

Swampoodle Park2018

Honors: The vanished Swampoodle neighborhood

NoMa's first new park, a playground and dog park at 3rd and L Streets NE, opened in November 2018. In a 2017 poll of more than 1,500 voters, 67% chose the name over 'Old City Corner' and '3rd and L Park.' The Council adopted it in April 2018. The park sits at the northeast corner of old Swampoodle.

Sources: NoMa Parks Foundation Announces 'Swampoodle Park' as Publicly Chosen Name (NoMa Parks Foundation, 2017) · Swampoodle Park (NoMa Parks Foundation)

Uline Arena (Washington Coliseum)1941

Honors: Mike Uline, owner of the M.J. Uline Ice Company

Ice dealer Mike Uline built a thin-shell concrete arena beside his rail-side ice plant; it opened in February 1941 with Sonja Henie's ice revue. Its events were segregated until an NAACP boycott led Uline to drop the policy in 1948. As the Washington Coliseum it became a major venue for Black cultural and political events.

Sources: M.J. Uline Ice Company and Arena (Washington Coliseum) (DC Historic Sites, DC Preservation League) · Uline Arena, AKA Washington Coliseum: DC's forgotten venue (Boundary Stones, WETA)

Still looking for a reliable source on Harry Thomas Way NE, Eckington Place NE, Patterson Street NE, Pierce Street NE, Porter Street NE, Congress Street NE. We don't publish a name's story until we can cite one. Know it? Tell us.

• Florine Jones interview, 1992-11-03Florine Jones · 1992 · audio

  Recorded for the St. Mary's Court Oral History Project. The archive describes Jones as a third-generation Washingtonian raised in Shaw who later lived with her husband and children in the area now called NoMa. She worked at the Pentagon and for 15 years at the Air and Space Museum. Two audio parts and a transcript.

  At Dig DC, DC Public Library (St. Mary's Court Oral History Project) · Shaw, family life, federal work, senior living
• Florince remembers major events at the Washington Coliseum/Uline ArenaFlorince Jones · video

  A short clip filed under Ward 6. The page notes that the arena opened in 1941, anchored the neighborhood's cultural life, and drew local families and national acts. Jones recalls the excitement of growing up a few blocks from it.

  At hometown DC (HumanitiesDC, DC Oral History Collaborative) · Uline Arena, Washington Coliseum, childhood
• Raymond Coates interview, 2021-08-19Raymond Coates · 2021 · audio

  A former staff member of the Edgewood/Brookland Family Support Collaborative traces his work back to the early Collaborative movement, starting with the North Capitol Collaborative. The archive says Coates, a native Washingtonian, was raised in the NoMa neighborhood, specifically the H Street corridor. Audio, index and transcript.

  At Dig DC, DC Public Library (HumanitiesDC, DC Oral History Collaborative) · North Capitol Collaborative, family support services, H Street corridor
• Richard Crayton interview, 2024-05-18Richard Crayton · 2024 · audio · remembers the 1950s, 1970s, 1980s

  Crayton, whose family settled in DC in the mid-1950s, recalls skating during segregation. He does not remember any city rink that admitted Black skaters, so he and his friends skated at Sherwood Recreation Center and on Black Saturday at Uline Arena. He later became a skate DJ at the National Roller Arena on Kalorama Road.

  At Dig DC, DC Public Library (HumanitiesDC, DC Oral History Collaborative) · roller skating, Uline Arena, segregation, DJs

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 2.