The Ninth Street Business and Property Owners Association Inc. Launches A Historic Initiative to Promote the Washington, DC Shaw Community.

The Ninth Street Business and Property Owners Association Incorporated, (The Ninth Street Association), founded in 1999, is comprised of Shaw business and property owners along the 9th Street corridor, and friends of the Shaw community. The Ninth Street Association’s mission is to increase the visibility and improve the economic vitality of the Shaw Community through: (1) enhancing awareness of the Shaw’s historical significance; (2) providing venues of advertisement for area merchants and organizations providing services to the community; (3) providing opportunities for educational development for area youth; (4) encouraging participation in community outreach programs; (5) addressing problems, issues and concerns of area businesses and residents; (6) fostering partnerships between residents and area businesses; (7) fostering recognition and preservation of a community that has been home to some of the “Giants” of American History, and; (8) serving to solicit private and public sector partnerships with neighborhood based businesses to generate additional business growth.

The centerpieces of the Ninth Street Associations’ efforts are a pictorial map of the Shaw community and a web-site (www.dcshawcommunity.org) identifying the varied sites of historical interests, associations, organizations, religious institutions, and businesses within the Shaw Community. The map and web-site serve as marketing tools to educate residents, business owners and visitors about the Shaw Community’s historical and retail significance.

The geographic boundary of the Association is the section of 9th Street, NW that lies between Massachusetts Avenue and Barry Place to the north. The Association boundaries are also within: (1) the Greater “U” Street Historic Preservation District; (2) the District of Columbia’s Enterprise Community Zones (Census Tracts 48.1 and 58); (3) the Uptown Arts-Mixed Use Overlay District; (4) the LeDroit Park Initiative Impact Area; and (5) areas of Washington, DC, City Council Wards 1 and 2.