America's Main Street

Pennsylvania Avenue, the broadest and most important street in Pierre L'Enfant's 1791 plan for the nation's capital, connects the Capitol and the White House and became the city's most central avenue. Known as America's Main Street, it is a place where Americans practice their rights to free speech and assembly and where the nation gathers for celebrations, national holidays, victories, and funeral processions for seven of the eight presidents who died in office. L'Enfant planned a grid of streets broken by wide diagonal avenues linking important buildings, with the avenues named for the states, and Pennsylvania was later honored with the central avenue because it had been home to the nation's seat of government during the Revolution. The area here first developed in 1801 as Washington's main marketplace. In 1871 the ornate red-brick Center Market rose across the avenue, joined by shops, wholesalers, and small businesses nearby. In the 1930s the market district disappeared and was replaced by the National Archives and the neighboring Federal Triangle buildings. By January 1961 this side of the avenue had grown shabby, and after noticing the decline while traveling the inauguration parade route from the Capitol to the White House, President John F. Kennedy appointed David Patrick Moynihan to plan its restoration as the great thoroughfare of Washington.

Washington, District of Columbia · United States