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G. Byron Peck's Duke Ellington mural on the True Reformer Building, as seen from across the street at Ben Ali Way — named for the owner of Ben's Chili Bowl.

A former silent movie house on U Street has been the home of Ben's Chili Bowl since its establishment in 1958.

The U Street Corridor is a collection of shops, restaurants, nightclubs, galleries and residences along a nine-block stretch of U Street in northwest Washington, D.C. It extends from 9th Street on the east to 18th Street and Florida Avenue on the west. Most of this area is part of the larger Shaw neighborhood with the western end entering the Dupont Circle neighborhood. It is served by the U Street Metro Station.

The U Street area is largely a Victorian-era neighborhood, developed between 1862 and 1900, the majority of which has been designated as a historic district. The area is made up of row houses constructed rapidly by speculative builders and real estate developers in response to the city's high demand for housing following the Civil War and the growth of the Federal government in the late 19th century. The corridor became commercially significant when a streetcar line operated there in the early 20th century, making it convenient for the first time for government employees to commute downtown to work and shop.^[1]

U Street has long been a center of Washington's music scene with the Lincoln Theatre, Howard Theatre, Bohemian Caverns, and other clubs and historic jazz venues. While always racially diverse, the area was predominately white and middle class until 1900. As Washington became progressively more segregated, the neighborhood emerged as a fashionable neighborhood for Washington's African-American residents. U Street became the city's most important concentration of businesses and entertainment facilities owned and operated by blacks, while the surrounding neighborhood became home to many of the city's most prominent African Americans.^[1] Until the 1920s, when it was overtaken by Harlem, the U Street area was home to the largest urban African American community in the United States.^[2] In its cultural heyday, it was known as "Black Broadway", a phrase coined by singer Pearl Bailey^[3]. Duke Ellington's childhood home was located on the nearby 1200 block of T Street. The Lincoln Theater opened in 1921, and Howard Theater in 1926.^[4]

While the area remained a cultural center for the African American community through the 1960s, the neighborhood began to decline after racially restrictive real estate covenants were removed by the Shelley v. Kraemer Supreme Court decision of 1948, allowing African Americans access to housing throughout the area.^[1] Following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, the intersection of 14th Street and U Street was the epicenter of violent and destructive riots by African-American residents. Following the riots, and the subsequent white flight of residents and businesses from the area, the corridor became blighted. Drug trafficking rose dramatically in the mid-sixties and for many years the intersection of 14th and U Streets was the center of drug trafficking in Washington, DC. At times, hundreds of addicts would fill the streets in a carnival-like atmosphere, waiting for drug shipments to arrive.^[5]

Gentrification began in the 1990s, following development in Adams Morgan and later Logan Circle. More than 2,000 luxury condominiums and apartments were constructed between 1997 and 2007.^{[citation needed]}

• 9:30 Club
• Ben's Chili Bowl
• The Black Cat (nightclub)
• U St/African-Amer Civil War Memorial/Cardozo (Washington Metro)

• Alt, Alicia. "U Street: The Corridor Is Cool Again", New York Times, April 14, 2006. 
• Kiviat, Barbara. "U in the District", Time, May 9, 2005. 
• Kuan, Diana. "U Street, Adams Morgan humming again", Boston Globe, January 28, 2007. 
• Wiltz, Teresa. "U Turn", Washington Post, March 5, 2006, p. W24. 
• Photo Tour of U Street Corridor