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Faces & Places of Yesterday

L’Enfant Plaza in 1973: A Photo of Southwest DC

An April 1973 National Archives photo of Southwest DC with the south end of L’Enfant Plaza in front, built after 1960s urban renewal bulldozed the area.

1 min readUpdated

L’Enfant Plaza has to be one of the most bleak places in D.C. It’ such a shame that an entire quadrant of the city was basically bulldozed to make way for the crappy urban renewal of the 1960s.

Southwest Washington, D.C. With South End Of L'Enfant Plaza In Foreground, April 1973
Southwest Washington, D.C. With South End Of L’Enfant Plaza In Foreground, April 1973 (U.S. National Archives)

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