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Bloomingdale is Not a Neighborhood And D.C. is Not “The District”
At a recent party with an intergenerational mix of DC natives and long-time DC residents, the all important issue of gentrification was up for discussion. It’s a topic that seems to permeate every aspect of our city’s current cultural and political climate and that takes up much of my own thoughts as I cannot cease to be in awe of how rapidly my hometown has changed.
One element of gentrification that I am certainly not the first to point out is the process of naming. Or should I say renaming? This phenomena has been categorized as Columbusing in which real estate developers followed by gentrifiers name and claim areas of the city as if the natives no longer exist there.
A Columbusing that is particularly curious is the name “Bloomingdale”, a new label given to the area surrounding First Street and Rhode Island Avenue. I thought I was the only one who believed new residents bragging about living in “Bloomingdale” was quite strange but apparently the older generation at this party found it to be equally bizarre. “What is this ‘Bloomingdale’, hipsters keep talking about? Do they mean the liquor store on the corner?” “Bloomingdale” is certainly the name of a liquor store which sits on a corner that during the 1980’s and 1990’s, most respectable folk would not have wanted to be caught standing on.
The idea that a name associated with street peddlers soliciting small change in order to purchase the beverages found in that corner store is now being used to tout an elite community of Washington DC may be an ironic twist but is hardly an historical name to describe this extension of LeDroit Park.
A Columbusing that is particularly curious is the name “Bloomingdale”, a new label given to the area surrounding First Street and Rhode Island Avenue. I thought I was the only one who believed new residents bragging about living in “Bloomingdale” was quite strange but apparently the older generation at this party found it to be equally bizarre. “What is this ‘Bloomingdale’, hipsters keep talking about? Do they mean the liquor store on the corner?” “Bloomingdale” is certainly the name of a liquor store which sits on a corner that during the 1980’s and 1990’s, most respectable folk would not have wanted to be caught standing on.
The idea that a name associated with street peddlers soliciting small change in order to purchase the beverages found in that corner store is now being used to tout an elite community of Washington DC may be an ironic twist but is hardly an historical name to describe this extension of LeDroit Park.
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Here are some tweets in response to the above SweetGirlChocolateCity Tumblr post:
If #BloomingdaleDC was created by gentrifiers, it happened more than a century ago: http://sweetgirlchocolatecity.tumblr.com/post/83226045110/bloomingdale-is-not-a-neighborhood-and-d-c-is-not-the … smfh
#letmegooglethatforyou @MontreMissouri: http://ghostsofdc.org/2012/10/22/why-is-it-named-bloomingdale/ … h/t @GhostsofDC #BloomingdaleDC
http://ghostsofdc.org/2012/10/22/why-is-it-named-bloomingdale/#bloomingdaledc in 1889. (Is there anyway to put numbers in all caps?) pic.twitter.com/Krd5QuzkNs
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5 comments:
I think the kids today have an expression that best sums my reaction that person's thesis: 'smfh'
I find it funny that folks said that the name wasn't Bloomingdale. My Grandmother who passed away on February 3rd of 2013 who was a second generation Washingtonian referred to the area as Bloomingdale years before she passed. I grew up in Brookland/North Michigan Park and have lived in Truxton Circle for almost 10 years now. When I moved in the area my grandmother asked me am I finally moving into Bloomingdale as it was always my dream as a kid to get what was known when I was young as a Bloomingdale Mansion. I informed her I was moving a few blocks south of Bloomingdale.
She always referred to that area as Bloomingdale and her older sister who now lives out in PG County still refers to it as Bloomingdale and she hasn't live in the city at least since I was a little kid more than 30 years ago and they were all raised in this city.
I'm not sure which older folks say that the area wasn't known as Bloomingdale but I can assure you that I know folks in their 70's and 80's who wouldn't know what a blog was if you hit them with one who have referred to it as Bloomingdale for at least the last 25 plus years.
In addition I also know many long time residents 20 years or more who refer to it as Bloomingdale as well.
A lot of the old neighborhoods--which were named at the turn of the century or earlier, as looking at old maps and newspapers will verify--"lost" their names in the urban blight of the 70s and 80s (which impacted the entire country, not just DC), and are now "finding" their rightful names used again. Of course this serves a variety of purposes--but it's not just for realtors or new denizens. Using the original neighborhood names instills a sense of place, identity, and dignity that I think many of us feel has deep historical roots. Overlooking the history behind these names--many of which come from famous black residents or Civil War army generals--overlooks the nuances of a rich, continuous urban fabric.
As a historian and a professional archivist this makes me so sad. What the hell is the point of preserving local history and historical institutions if people are going to make shyte up like this?
Maybe this is a sign of failure for those of us in the history field, but then again there are Holocaust deniers. Maybe the author is the one and (hopefully) only Bloomingdale denier?
Actually, in the 1820s, the majority of the neighborhood referred to as Bloomingdale was made up of the Bloomingdale Estate, owned by George Beale and his wife Emily Truxton Beale (Truxton Circle anyone?). One would assume that the neighborhood lent its name to the liquor store, since the reverse is obviously untrue.
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