Literary Village - Author Talk with John DeFerrari

Sixteenth Street NW: Washington DC's Avenue of Ambitions

Highly detailed and compelling, Sixteenth Street NW is ultimately a biography of a street as important to DC’s history and culture as it is to its cityscape.

This lavishly illustrated book delves into the social and architectural history of Sixteenth Street NW and immediate neighborhoods, including Mount Pleasant, revealing how the push and pull between ordinary Washingtonians and powerful elites has shaped the corridor—and the city. Drawing on a wide range of sources, they describe the people and events that have contributed to its cultural as well as architectural diversity, from its dirt-path beginnings to the broad and ceremonial boulevard that exists today, and from modest frame houses to opulent places of worship and luxury apartment buildings.

The talk will be followed by Q+A and book-signing. Free copies while supplies last, with additional copies available for sale and sign by the author.

This program is a part of the Literary Village book talk series - a partnership between Mount Pleasant Village and the Friends of Mt. Pleasant Library.

About the author
John DeFerrari was born and raised in Washington, D.C. and has a lifelong passion for local history. He has a master’s degree in English Literature from Harvard University and worked for many years as a federal government analyst. In addition to penning the popular Streets of Washington blog on Substack, DeFerrari is also a trustee of the D.C. Preservation League and in that role actively works to preserve the historic built environment of the District of Columbia. He is the author of four D.C. history books: Lost Washington, D.C. (2011), Historic Restaurants of Washington, D.C.: Capital Eats (2013); Capital Streetcars: Early Mass Transit in Washington, D.C. (2015); and Sixteenth Street NW: Washington, DC's Avenue of Ambitions (2022), which he co-authored with Douglas Peter Sefton.

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