Judiciary Square is a neighborhood in the northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C., in the United States, the vast majority of which is occupied by various federal and municipal courthouses and office buildings. Judiciary Square is located roughly between Pennsylvania Avenue to the south, H Street to the north, 6th Street to the west, and 3rd Street to the east. The center of the neighborhood is an actual plaza named Judiciary Square. The Square itself is bounded by 4th Street to the east, 5th Street to the west, D Street and Indiana Avenue to the south, and F Street to the north. The neighborhood is served by the Judiciary Square station on the Red Line of the Washington Metro, in addition to Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority bus stops.
The Square was included in the 1791 L'Enfant Plan, which planned the layout of the nation's new capital. The plans were slightly altered during the following years. Development in the neighborhood was slow during the first half of the 19th century. There were only a few shanties and a small hospital utilized by recent immigrants. When construction of the District of Columbia City Hall began in 1820, it led to an increase in development around the Square. Houses and places of worship were built, including the First Unitarian Church (now the All Souls Church, Unitarian). Other denominations soon followed with building impressive structures, such as Trinity Episcopal Church.
The area became a fashionable place to live, despite many lots on the northern side being undeveloped, and Goose Creek passing through the neighborhood. Prominent residents during the 19th-century include Vice President John C. Calhoun, statesman Daniel Webster, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Roger B. Taney, and architect Charles Bulfinch. During the Civil War, the buildings and open lots around the Square were commandeered to treat wounded Union soldiers. At the beginning of the war, the Square's hospital was destroyed in a fire, so another hospital opened on the Square. There was also a large brick jail on the Square, that probably hindered development in the vicinity. After President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, local citizens raised money to install a statue of Lincoln that became the nation's first memorial to the slain president.
Alexander "Boss" Shepherd improved many areas of the neighborhood by having the streets graded and paved, sewer lines installed, and adding landscaping, which created a park-like setting in the Square. A massive new building on the north side of the Square, the Pension Building, was completed in 1887. By that time the residents in the neighborhood were mostly lawyers, doctors, professors, and other white-collar professions, due to the proximity of the city hall, hospital, and Columbian College, now known as George Washington University. The installation of streetcars resulted in further development. It was around this time, several older buildings on 4 1/2 Street were demolished and replaced with John Marshall Park. During the 20th century, the area became less residential, especially after the construction of multiple judicial buildings. Most prominent citizens had already left the area to live in more fashionable neighborhoods. The area became mostly a neighborhood where office and judicial employees worked. With the construction of the Judiciary Square station, there was a sharp increase in commercial development. The largest project, Capitol Crossing, began in the 21st century.
There are many public artworks in the neighborhood, in addition to the Lincoln statue. The list includes the Darlington Memorial Fountain, George Gordon Meade Memorial, and Chief Justice John Marshall. Most of the neighborhood is listed as contributing properties to the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site, and the Square itself is included in the historic landmark designation for the L'Enfant Plan. Additional historic buildings besides City Hall and the Pension Building include the Adas Israel Synagogue, the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse, Germuiller Row, and the Henry Daly Building.
Location
The Judiciary Square plaza, which encompasses , is on Squares 487E, 488E, and 489E, and is bounded by 4th Street to the east, 5th Street to the west, D Street and Indiana Avenue to the south, and F Street to the north. The Judiciary Square neighborhood, which encompasses Squares 486, 488, 489, 490, 518, 529, 531, and 533, is roughly bounded by C Street, Constitution Avenue, and Pennsylvania Avenue to the south, 3rd and 4th Street to the east, G Street to the north, and 6th Street to the west. Along the north side of the Square is the Judiciary Square station of the Washington Metro. George Hadfield designed the $8,000 two-story building.
In the years following the war, there was a large influx of people moving into the city, but many areas had not yet been graded or plotted. Alexander "Boss" Shepherd was responsible for large-scale improvements to the city. This included modernizing the Judiciary Square neighborhood with public work projects, including paved roads, adding sewer lines, and landscaping public land. Additional improvements included building a small public restroom, adding footpaths, narrowing the roads on the southern end of the Square, and adding a fountain in the Square. The school and old jail were demolished by 1878 and replaced with green space and the Goose Creek was drained. The goal was to make the Square a landscaped area similar to ones designed by Andrew Jackson Downing.
By the 1920s, buildings along G Street were mostly restaurants and shops that catered to office workers.
The District government finalized a deal in 2010 with the Louis Dreyfus Group to construct Capitol Crossing, a mixed-use development in the airspace over the Center Leg Freeway (Interstate 395). The $1.3 billion office, residential, and retail project at the east end of the Judiciary Square neighborhood will also restore the area's original L'Enfant Plan street grid by reconnecting F and G Streets over the freeway. The project awaited final regulatory approval for several years and construction began in 2016. Part of the construction process necessitated moving the Adas Israel Synagogue, which had been moved twice decades earlier for construction projects. The original building and a modern addition are now the Lillian & Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum, which opened in 2023.
Historic properties
thumb|alt=Memorial to a Civil War General|The [[George Gordon Meade Memorial stands in front of the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse.]]
Judiciary Square itself is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites (DCIHS), as a part of the L'Enfant Plan, which was added to the DCIHS on March 7, 1968, and the NRHP on April 24, 1997. A large portion of the neighborhood also contains contributing properties to the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site, listed on the NRHP on October 15, 1966, and the DCIHS on June 19, 1973.
Additional structures listed on both the NRHP and DCIHS include: the Adas Israel Synagogue, the District of Columbia City Hall, which is also a National Historic Landmark (NHL), the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse, Germuiller Row, the Harrison Apartment Building, the Henry Daly Building, the Moran Building, the National Building Museum (NHL), the US General Accounting Office Building, the United States Court of Military Appeals Building, and the United States Tax Court Building. The Albert Pike Memorial and George Gordon Meade Memorial are collectively listed with 16 other monuments on the NRHP and DCIHS as Civil War Monuments in Washington, D.C. The 1923 Darlington Memorial Fountain, which includes two bronze statutes on top of the fountain, was installed in 1923.
The abstract sculpture, She Who Must Be Obeyed, is in between the Henry Daly Building and Frances Perkins Building. It was created by Tony Smith and installed in 1975. The Chess Players is on the east side of John Marshall Park and was installed in 1983.
Transportation
The neighborhood is served by two forms of public transit. Entrances to the Judiciary Square station on the Washington Metro's Red Line are on the northern and eastern ends of the Square. The second form is Metrobus with several bus stops in the neighborhood and nearby vicinity, including ones on 6th Street, E Street, H Street, and Pennsylvania Avenue. Other forms of transportation in the neighborhood include Capital Bikeshare stations at 4th and D Streets, and 5th and F Streets. A few blocks east of Judiciary Square is Washington Union Station, where commuters on the MARC Train and Amtrak arrive.
See also
- Neighborhoods in Washington, D.C.