Congress Heights, which takes its name from its hilly geography that offers a view across the Anacostia to the U.S. Capitol , began development as a neighborhood in the late 1920s when it was established as the end of the Washington streetcars line. Prior to World War II the D.C. National Guard was housed at Camp Simms . The facility included firing ranges up to 1,000 yards. It was on Alabama Avenue at the intersection of Stanton Road and Barry Farms Housing Project. During WW II it had gun emplacements (Anti-Aircraft) to defend Washington from air attack. After World War II, the U.S. Army built a military reserve facility, in the central part of Congress Heights. The campus of St. Elizabeths Hospital already stood immediately northwest of the neighborhood. Many early residents worked at the U.S. Naval Gun Factory, which stopped production about 1960, or at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory . The annual Martin Luther King Birthday parade on the avenue bearing his name, is a notable neighborhood event each January, if weather allows. There is an excellent, new tennis and learning center on Mississippi Avenue, combining sports and school tutoring.