Eighth Street, Washington, District of Columbia, DC

Significance: Eight Street, flanked by Seventh and Ninth Streets, marks a significant longitudinal axis connecting seven special sites on the L'Enfant plan and six on Ellicott's plan. Of these, the Mall, Market Square, the square where the Patent Office was built, and Mount Vernon Square remain significant urban spaces. All of the street in the southwest quadrant was obliterated by urban renewal in the 1950-60s, and the remaining segment in the northwest quadrant became the subject of heated debate in the late 1980s when a developer planned to bridge the right-of-way with an overhead walkway, closing one block to traffic and violating the vista between Mount Vernon Square and the Patent Office.
Survey number: HABS DC-718