The station is located in the Anacostia neighborhood of Southeast Washington, with entrances at Shannon Place and Howard Road near Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE (a major street serving the southeastern portion of the city).

[16] In January 1978, a Metro regional task force approved a Green Line route in Anacostia that followed Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue and then Wheeler Road down to the Beltway (with a new station added near St. Elizabeths Hospital).

In September 1980, D.C. City Council member Jerry A. Moore, Jr. delivered a petition containing 1,000 signatures from Anacostia residents demanding that construction on the Green Line be sped up.

in which the newspaper concluded: "The 18.86 miles (30.35 km) Green Line, which some argue should have been the first built because it would serve the most disadvantaged sections of the Washington area, is last on the construction list and threatened with extinction.

[27] Angry residents, protesting the amount of traffic which would come into their residential neighborhood, forced Metro to reduce the size of the parking lot to 1,300 spaces.

[38] But construction on the Green Line was suspended for nearly two years due to federal budget cuts (see below), and in March 1983 the Architect of the Capitol agreed to move the nursery to a parcel of land in the Bellevue neighborhood.

[49] Frustrated by funding constraints and the court injunction, Metro released a proposed "final" system map in December 1983 which showed the Green Line terminating at the Anacostia and Mount Vernon Square stations.

[50] Metro opened negotiations with Prince George's County officials in 1984 to win their approval to build the Green Line from the L'Enfant Plaza Station to Anacostia.

[53][55] The agreement called for construction of the Green Line to Waterfront Station in the summer, siting of the tunnel under the Anacostia River by June 28, and the holding of public hearings on the remaining route between July 18 and August 3.

[59] Metro issued a call for bids to tunnel under the Anacostia River in July 1984,[60] and awarded the $25.6 million contract to the firm of Harrison Western/Franki-Denys (a joint venture) in December 1984.

[68] These disagreements were put off as Metro officials and others focused on getting the Green Line built, but by 1985 the parking garage remained part of the station's overall transportation and construction plan.

[77] Exit 3B (Howard Road) on southbound I-295 was closed to construct Anacostia station, blocking traffic from reaching South Capitol Street.

[79] Funding for construction of the station and the Green Line was threatened again in 1986,[80] but lengthy negotiations and heavy pressure from Congress led to the release of $400 million on July 16, 1986.

[86] Although ridership was projected to rise 3.8 percent to 260 million trips in the coming year,[87] the increased revenue was not expected to cover the costs of operating the new lines and stations.

[5][117][118] More than 1,000 people packed "raucous" public hearings for three nights in the District and Prince George's County in early September, denouncing Metro and claiming they were "becoming a victim of transportational apartheid.

"[113] Worried about the impact of the cuts as well as a possible bus boycott, D.C. Mayor Sharon Pratt Dixon announced on September 11, 1991, that she would seek an alternative to the changes proposed by Metro.

[120][121] But D.C. residents countered that poor African American District citizens could ill-afford the same transit changes and fare increases that wealthy, white suburbanites were asked to absorb.

[126] Prince George's County, meanwhile, also announced that its county-run buses ("The Bus") would not run to Anacostia station as previously promised either, drawing outrage from D.C.'s representatives on Metro's board.

[127] To make up the lost revenue, Metro said it would run only two-car trains on the Green Line during slow periods weekdays and evenings and on Sundays beginning in June 1992.

A Metro survey in April 1991 found that the 75,000 bus riders in Anacostia were forced to use the dirtiest and most poorly maintained buses operated by the transit agency.

[131] The District of Columbia rezoned the land near the Anacostia station for commercial use in mid-1993, hoping to spur development in the area and prevent Metro from using the site for the bus garage.

[94] Even though significant numbers of bus riders in Anacostia had switched to Metrorail by February 1992, WMATA nonetheless began running two- rather than four-car trains on the Green Line on Sundays and during slow periods in order to close a revenue shortfall.

[5] Fear of crime was one of the reasons why Prince George's County residents fought bus route changes in 1991 which would have forced riders to disembark at Anacostia station.

[164] By 2005, large crowds of middle and high school students began congregating at the station, brawling and robbing Metro riders and creating a public safety issue.

[175] Notable crimes committed at the Anacostia station include: Metrorail has often been viewed as an important factor in spurring economic development in the D.C. metropolitan region.

[95][185][186] However, at least one study by a professor of urban and regional planning at George Washington University found that the historic district designation had done little to spur economic growth in the neighborhood.

[185] These fears were supported by Dorn McGrath, Jr., director of the George Washington University Institute for Urban Development Research, who says that new Metro stations attracted high-income residents who gentrified their areas, drove rents up, and caused neighborhoods to lose their identity.

The closest businesses (hair salons, carry-out fast food stores, auto repair and tire shops) were three blocks away, and no plans for retail development had been submitted despite the city's action six years earlier.

[196] Williams promised to relocate 200,000 square feet (19,000 m2) of city offices and the headquarters of the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation to the building to ensure high occupancy rates.

[196][197] Williams said Metro could then sell its downtown eight-story office building and land at 5th and F Streets NW for $75 million, which would help the transit agency fund projects as well as the move.