Hillsdale

With everything available for neighborhood amenities, Hillsdale is certainly a nice place to call home. Charming, affordable townhouses abound here, which make this area tailor-made for families and singles on a budget. Besides the standard grocery stores and schools, Hillsdale also offers a close distance to Barry Farm, Fort Stanton Park, and the St. Elizabeth Medical Hospital. Perfect location for those working in the Navy Yard, and who are looking for a sweet home away from the noise of the big city. If you don't have a car, of course, you should probably look elsewhere.

Hillsdale is a residential neighborhood in the southeast section of the city. The boundaries of Hillsdale are generally defined by the Anacostia Parkway, Suitland Parkway and Morris Road S.E. Here you will find a mixture of attached and detached single family homes as well as a great number of multifamily units. Residents will find a number of schools here including the Wilkerson Elementary School, Savoy Elementary School, Septima Clark PCS, Thurgood Marshall Academy PCS and the Douglas Junior High School. There are a limited number of stores and restaurants in the area, however many will want to venture out of the area for more shopping and dining options. Recreational facilities can be found at the nearby Wilkerson Recreational facility. The Anacostia Metro station as well as numerous Metro Bus stops are located in Hllsdale offering excellent public transportation options to residents. Finally, there are a number of places to worship here in the neighborhood.

Crime against people and property do occur here on a regular basis. As always you should check the most recent crime statistics to make an informed decision as to the crime risk in any neighborhood. One of the things that will be interesting in the future will be how the large tracts of undeveloped land within Hillsdale are utilized. As with the success with any neighborhood, crime must be controlled to attract residents and businesses.

Hillsdale is a poorer community with bigger dreams. Most of the adults work in blue collar jobs, and quite a few of them are retirees. However, it has a very strong sense of both community and history. Rather than think of its past and despair, Hillsdale dreams of embracing the future with a bow to history at the same time. There is a town center planned, and a farmer’s market. The local community center is extremely active and very vocal about anything it doesn’t like.
Hillsdale used to be a suburb and agricultural district. Residents once grazed dairy cattle and made cheese. For this reason, Hillsdale wants to start a farmer’s market and become a destination in the area east of the Anacostia river.
Consistent with a formerly agricultural area, much of the housing is larger houses on decent sized plots. There are also vacant plots of land there, which sadly do attract the wrong kind of people. Hillsdale is thinking big by wanting more development and retail in their area, and this is happily somewhat successful. By the standards of this part of the city, Hillsdale is quite nice with plenty of grass and trees. Education is also a focus, with several new charter schools. Bottom line: Hillsdale is a neighborhood on the rise.

Hillsdale is small residential community located in one of the worst part of Washington, D.C. Like most of the communities built along the banks of the Anacostia River, Hilldale has been plagued by crime and drug use for decades. However, all that is changing now, thanks in large part to this community’s commitment to better education for themselves and their children.
A few years ago, neighborhood residents worked with others from outside the community to create several charter schools to offer a positive alternative to DC’s crumbling public school system. The first of these, the Septima Clark Public School, was the first all-boys public school in the District. It is committed to training boys in Kindergarten through 8th grade to be men of wisdom and honor. They can continue learning at the Thurgood Marshall Public Charter High School and, hopefully, at some of the best colleges in the neighborhood.
Besides its schools, and some local churches, there is really little else to recommend Hilldale. However, if you want to see what happens when a community gets serious about its future, you may visit this unusual place.