History 

Columbia Heights is a rapidly developing neighborhood of Washington, DC.  Once a largely rural area just outside the original boundaries of Washington, DC, it gave way to a major horse racing track in the 1800's, a densely populated community of middle income and government workers by the 1920's, and then a bustling "city within a city" by the 1960's.  Columbia Heights suffered a major decline after the devastating riots of 1968 following the assassination of Dr. Marting Luther King, Jr.  You can read more about the fascinating history of Columbia Heights in the History section.

• History of Columbia Heights

Columbia Heights Today 

The dream of restoring Columbia Heights back to the vibrant community and thriving commercial district of the past took a major leap forward with the opening of the Columbia Heights Metro Station in 1999.  This attracted a flood of investors to the Columbia Heights area and brought the promise of major development projects that would breathe life back to the neighborhood.  With the collaboration of community residents, developers, and the DC government, a masterplan for the Columbia Heights revitalization efforts was drafted.  You can read the well-conceived plans from a series of PDF documents on the DC Office of Planning web site. 

Columbia Heights is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in DC.  It has a very large Hispanic, African-American, and White population along with a substantial population of Asian-Americans and other races.  Find out more about the demographics of Ward 1, Cluster 2 which includes the Columbia Heights, Mt. Pleasant, and Park View neighborhoods.

Visiting Columbia Heights

If you visit Columbia Heights now, you will see that it is abuzz with new construction projects especially near the metro station (14th St NW and Irving St NW).  If you don't know where Columbia Heights is, please visit our Location section.  You can also visit our Interactive Map page.

• Where is Columbia Heights?
• Interactive Map of Columbia Heights