THE CAPITAL NEWS: Exploring the Congress Heights Community

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Excerpt:

The Congress Heights Community is nestled on the hills of the Anacostia River and makes up one of the oldest communi ties of Ward 8. With beginnings stretching as far back as the Native Americans, it is only fitting that a chronological timeline be explored to discover this community’s rich history.

The community begins at Missis sippi Avenue S.E. and 13th street S.E. and it goes west along Alabama to the south west boundary of St. Elizabeth’s campus to Lebaum St. SE, down to Interstate 295 and back to Mississippi Ave SE.

The history of Congress Heights be gan back in 1608 with the original natives, Nacotchtank Indians. In the 1630s Euro pean colonists began to claim land in the area now called Congress Heights and in 1735 Thomas Addison Jr. built a plantation near Giesboro Point area. In 1813 Tobias Henson, an enslaved African American bought his freedom and the freedom of many of his relatives and purchased land along Hamilton Road, now Alabama Avenue. Today there is a condo division along Alabama Avenue named Henson Ridge, for Tobias Henson.