Petworth
Petworth, an affordable residential neighborhood in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C., is a diverse and family friendly neighborhood. Bounded by Georgia Avenue, North Capitol Street, Rock Creek Church Road, and Missouri Avenue NW, Petworth is found in Ward 4 of the city.
Originally the site of two country estates, the 204-acre Petworth estate and the 183-acre Marshall Brown estate, the neighborhood began within a then-unincorporated part of the District of Columbia. Late in the 1880s, following incorporation into the city, the estates were purchased with the intent of development. The expansion of the streetcar line up what is now Georgia Avenue allowed the neighborhood to blossom.
Today, the neighborhood is primarily residential and contains a mixture of townhouses and single-family homes. Notably, many of the thousands of similar brick rowhouses in Petworth were constructed in the 1920s and ‘30s by D.J. Dunigan Co. and also Cafritz Builders. Additionally, Dunigan himself donated the land that would later become the site for St. Gabriel’s Church and School.
