Downtown Progress Records in Dig DC

Digital Collection

Identifier: dcpl_025_005

Staff Only

Dates

Creation: ca. 1975

Creator

Downtown Progress (Organization)
National Capital Downtown Committee (Washington, D.C.) (Organization)

Conditions Governing Use

No commericial use of the films are permitted.

Biographical / Historical

Downtown Progress, originally known as the National Capital Downtown Committee, was a non-profit organization of businesspeople formed in 1959 to revitalize the area from the United States Capitol to the White House. The downtown urban renewal area was bounded by 5th and 15th Streets NW, and Pennsylvania Avenue to Massachusetts Avenue NW. Among projects promoted by Downtown Progress were the construction of the Metro, the Martian Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, and the F Street Mall. The group also supported the preservation efforts of Ford’s Theatre, the Old Patent Office, Old Post Office and the Willard Hotel. The organization was officially disbanded in 1977 and turned into a public sector of the government known as the National Capital Planning Commission.

Extent

3 Files (3 digitized films.)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Custodial History

These films were digitized as part of The Great Migration Home Movie Project at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

General Note

Three films created by Downtown Progress as advertisements. The films include Library for the Arts, featuring the E.B. Thompson lantern slide collection at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library; Metro, the Coming Way to Go, featuring the first 4.6 miles of track in the WMATA system; and Washington, D.C., Where the Bicentennial Is, featuring a parade of drum and fife corps in front of the Capitol Building in anticipation of 1976 American Revolution Bicentennial.