Park View, D.C.

With as much time and energy that has been focused on Metro Stations this year, particularly with names, I thought it would be interesting to dig into the history of the Georgia Ave-Petworth station. While there are many who feel that there was a missed opportunity by not changing the name of the Georgia Ave-Petworth station name to something better and representative of its location, the WMATA board did approve five other name changes. I’m willing to wager, however, that most residents debating the merits of the station’s name may not be aware that the location of the Georgia Avenue station was not originally to be at New Hampshire Avenue, or there was once a Petworth station planned as well as a Georgia Avenue station.

Metro map as recommended by the National Capital Planning Commission, 1966

As Zachary M. Schrag outlines in his book on the Washington Metro, the Green Line would take more than two decades before the first stations were opened in May 1991 and it would be another decade before it was completed. The delay, Schrag continues, resulted as much from extreme sensitivity to inner-city demands as from official disregard.

The Red line  was authorized in 1965 and remained largely as planned during its construction. The trunk portion of the Blue and Orange lines was approved by Congress in 1967. The Green line was not authorized until December 1969 after substantial work had already been done on the other trunk lines. While the Green line from its conception was scheduled for a late start, late originally meant September 1977.

Metro was not able to hold its original schedule. Metro encountered physical obstacles, lawsuits, and appropriation problems. The Green line itself had its own hurdles. The D.C. government was determined to avoid the top-down planning that had displaced tens of thousands of people in Southwest. All of this further delayed construction of the Green line and left the route open to continual modification and uncertainty. (more…)