Melvin Hazen No More – Hello U.S. Reservation 630

Tilden and Reno Road, NW

Adieu Melvin Hazen, nobody will miss you.

In February 2021 Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton educated:

“Hazen began his career in the D.C. government as a surveyor in 1889 and rose through the ranks to become President of the three-member Board of Commissioners, a role he held from 1933 until his death, in 1941. Over the 51 years of his career, he held considerable influence and power over the development of D.C., and chose to wield this power by implementing a drastic urban planning strategy in Northwest D.C. that promoted segregation, prioritized all-white communities and marginalized African-American residents.

Reno City was a 52-acre community of 370 families, with retail, homes, churches, mutual aid societies and social clubs. The community developed after the Civil War and gave African-American families the opportunity to own homes in the District, following a tried and true path to the middle class. Over time, as developers purposefully crafted Northwest D.C. into a white enclave, Hazen saw the community in Reno City as an obstacle to his segregationist plans and spent decades advocating for its removal. He labeled the community in Reno City a “blight” and considered it out of “harmony with the general plan for the District.” His solution was “to condemn the entire area.” At a Senate hearing in 1926, Hazen acknowledged that the hundreds of homes in that area were occupied “mostly by colored folks” and admitted that “[t]he property owners were not particularly consulted.” Despite opposition from the local residents, Reno City was demolished and replaced with a high school, a middle school and Fort Reno Park. In December 1941, following Hazen’s death, the National Capital Park and Planning Commission named a stream valley park they had acquired after him.”

From the National Park Service:

“Reservation 630 covers an area of land that extends from Rock Creek close to Picnic Grove #1 and follows an un-named tributary to the west all the way to Reno Road NW. It is bisected by Connecticut Avenue NW. West of Connecticut Ave. NW the park is bound to the north by Tilden Street NW and Sedgewick Street NW and on the south by Rodman Street NW. To the east of Connecticut Avenue NW the park land is bound by no roads but touches to the backs of several properties running along Tilden Street NW to the north and Quebec Street NW.

Trail head access is available at:

Tilden Street NW near 34th Street NW
Rodman Street NW near 34th Street NW
Connecticut Avenue NW (between Sedgewick Street NW and Quebec Street NW)
Picnic Grove #1 near the Western Ridge Trail

The park is also home to the Reservation 630 Community Garden.”