Stand at the foot of the Sousa Bridge and you're standing at one of the oldest river crossings in Washington — older than most of the city's famous landmarks. People have been crossing the Anacostia at Pennsylvania Avenue since George Washington's presidency, and every era of that crossing left its mark on the neighborhoods above it: Fairlawn, and the blocks old maps still label Twining. This is a corner of the city where the history is written in the housing stock, front porch by front porch.
The Crossing: 1795 to 1890
The first bridge here — the Eastern Branch Bridge, a privately owned toll drawbridge — went up between 1795 and 1800, when the capital itself was brand new. It carried the road to Upper Marlboro, which is why Pennsylvania Avenue SE runs where it does today.
That first bridge earned a place in the history books in August 1814: retreating American soldiers burned it themselves to slow the British march on Washington. It was rebuilt, served for another generation, and burned again in 1846 — and for the next forty-four years, the crossing went back to the water. Ferries carried farmers, traders, and travelers over the river to the turnpike, landing below the heights where the Naylor family farmed — the family whose name still runs across the map on Naylor Road. When the campaign for a new bridge took shape in 1870, Colonel Henry Naylor was among the men leading it.
The campaign eventually won. In 1890, an iron girder bridge opened at the old crossing — and the land on the far side was suddenly fifteen minutes from Capitol Hill.
Pennsylvania Avenue in 1890 — the very year the iron bridge opened at the avenue's eastern end. The streetcars in view would reach across the river within two decades. Library of Congress.
The Trolley: 1898 to 1923
Bridges make land reachable; streetcars make it home. The East Washington Heights Traction Railroad was incorporated in 1898, and by 1903 its cars ran from the Capitol along Pennsylvania Avenue SE to Barney Circle. In 1902, developer Arthur Randle — the same Colonel Randle who built Congress Heights and Randle Highlands — won approval from Congress to lay tracks across the bridge itself, and by 1908 the trolley was climbing the far bank, running out Pennsylvania Avenue to 27th Street SE.
The houses came right behind it. The first homes in the heart of old Twining went up in 1905, and the 1910s brought the building wave that still defines those blocks: little two-story wood-frame Italianates, scattered all over the triangle between Pennsylvania and Minnesota Avenues — bracketed cornices and tall windows at cottage scale, a whole neighborhood of them built for the families the trolley carried home. Walk the streets near the bridge today and you'll spot them everywhere once you know to look.
The area's name honors Major William Johnson Twining, the Army engineer who served as the District's Engineer Commissioner from 1878 until 1882 — a fitting patron for a neighborhood that engineering built. By 1917 the trolley reached past 33rd Street; in 1923, buses took over the route, and their descendants — today's 32 and 34 lines — still trace the trolley's path down Pennsylvania Avenue a century later.
The Lawn by the River
The name that stuck to the riverside blocks came from an estate. Dr. Arthur Christie, a wealthy Englishman, bought roughly fifty acres above the water and named the property Fairlawn for its smooth, grassy slope running down to the Anacostia. When the land was subdivided, the estate's name became the neighborhood's — and it earned it, because Fairlawn's western edge is still a lawn: Anacostia Park, one of the largest parks in the city, runs the full length of the neighborhood's riverfront, with the skating pavilion, the ballfields, and the river trail at the end of the block.
Fairlawn's houses arrived over half a century — the oldest from 1894, the majority between 1910 and 1930, the last waves in the 1940s. The result is one of the most varied small housing inventories east of the river: bungalows, American Foursquares, colonials, brick ramblers, and Fairlawn's signature — modest rowhouses built in pairs, so nearly every house gets a front yard and a side yard.
The Sousa Bridge: 1940
The hardworking 1890 iron bridge was retired at the end of the 1930s, replaced by the New Deal-era span that still carries Pennsylvania Avenue today. It was named for John Philip Sousa — the March King himself, a son of Southeast Washington, born and raised blocks from the Marine Barracks where he'd later lead the Marine Band. The avenue his bridge carries runs straight back toward his childhood neighborhood.
Living in the History
Two centuries of crossings built a housing stock with real character — and some practical advantages:
- The trolley-era houses finance simply. Detached and paired houses mean no condo project review and no association dues in your ratios. Fairlawn and old Twining sit at the entry end of the District's market, where DC's homebuyer assistance programs do their best work.
- A century-old frame Italianate rewards renovation lending. FHA 203(k) and HomeStyle loans underwrite against the home's value after the planned improvements, so restoring one of the 1910s originals doesn't have to come out of savings.
- Longtime owners are holding real equity. Houses near a riverfront park, held for decades, have quietly built substantial value. A cash-out refinance or home equity loan can put that equity to work without selling.
Our Fairlawn financing guide covers the neighborhood's market in detail, and the Randle Highlands guide picks up across the avenue.
Buying near the park, or putting a long-held house's equity to work? Get pre-qualified or talk to us first — we'll start with the house and the numbers.
