Neighborhood Frontiers: Where Is Penn Quarter?

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IT MIGHT NOT BE a watershed day in the District's local history but neighborhood blog Gallery Place Living got an online revamp and has adopted a new name, Penn Quarter Living. It's a small sign of the greater change swirling through the center of the city.

Since the MCI Center (now the Verizon Center) was built at 7th and F streets NW a decade ago, the surrounding neighborhood has shifted; for example, the number of Chinese restaurants in Chinatown has decreased, while condos and chain stores continue to appear.

In recent years, the shiny Gallery Place retail/entertainment/condo complex at 7th and H streets NW — in addition to the Gallery Place-Chinatown Metrorail station — has anchored the heart of the neighborhood and solidified the use of "Gallery Place" as a downtown destination.

Now it seems newcomer name "Penn Quarter" is edging in on Gallery Place's turf. So what's part of Penn Quarter and what isn't?

If you ask us, the sign you see here, which stands on 8th Street NW near E Street, marks the center of Penn Quarter. In recent years, the name of the Metrorail station closest to the sign, Archives-Navy Memorial, has been modified to include Penn Quarter. But the name keeps creeping further afield.

Promotions for spots like the Acadiana restaurant on Mount Vernon Square and condo developments on Massachusetts Avenue have also sported the Penn Quarter name. Even the Penn Quarter Neighborhood Association, led by the eternally persistent Jo-Ann Neuhaus, says on its Web site that Penn Quarter is "the new neighborhood between the White House and the Capitol." And that takes in a lot of territory.

To make simple, it might be time to have a summit and settle once and for all where Penn Quarter is. Really, it's all just "downtown," but in the small-d sense.

» EARLIER: "18th, M & Connecticut: What Do You Call It?" [Free Ride/Express]

Photo by Michael Grass/Express