Benning Race Track, Washington, DC
Rounding the final turn toward the backstretch. The road I am driving on roughly follows the shape of the original track, with the fenced apartment complex inside the original track oval.
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Benning Race Track opened in 1890, on the east side of Washington, DC, across the Anacostia River and slightly to the northeast of what is now RFK Stadium. Approximately 2,000 people came out to the races that day.
Legalized gambling ended in 1908, and the grandstand was burned to the ground in 1915. However, horse training and car racing continued here for another couple of decades. Attempts to bring horse racing back to Benning in the mid to late 1930s were a failure.
150 acres of the race track property were sold in 1928 to develop Eastland Gardens. A Howard University architecture professor bought the land on which the track sat in 1942, to build the Mayfair Mansions garden apartment complex. Mayfair Mansions opened in 1946, providing housing options for working and middle class African Amrerican families. The site was listed with the Mational Register of Historic Places in 1989.
For a good article on the history of the track: greatergreaterwashington.org/post/4702/lost-washington-be...
To view a satellite image of the site as it looks today: mapq.st/GPmr4F
To view a map of the original track location: www.flickr.com/photos/dckaleidoscope/4300704617/
Benning Race Track, Washington, DC
Rounding the final turn toward the backstretch. The road I am driving on roughly follows the shape of the original track, with the fenced apartment complex inside the original track oval.
------------------------
Benning Race Track opened in 1890, on the east side of Washington, DC, across the Anacostia River and slightly to the northeast of what is now RFK Stadium. Approximately 2,000 people came out to the races that day.
Legalized gambling ended in 1908, and the grandstand was burned to the ground in 1915. However, horse training and car racing continued here for another couple of decades. Attempts to bring horse racing back to Benning in the mid to late 1930s were a failure.
150 acres of the race track property were sold in 1928 to develop Eastland Gardens. A Howard University architecture professor bought the land on which the track sat in 1942, to build the Mayfair Mansions garden apartment complex. Mayfair Mansions opened in 1946, providing housing options for working and middle class African Amrerican families. The site was listed with the Mational Register of Historic Places in 1989.
For a good article on the history of the track: greatergreaterwashington.org/post/4702/lost-washington-be...
To view a satellite image of the site as it looks today: mapq.st/GPmr4F
To view a map of the original track location: www.flickr.com/photos/dckaleidoscope/4300704617/