Bellevue was created from some of the earliest land patents in Maryland, and draws its name from a 1795 mansion built in the area.

On June 20, 1632, Charles I of England gave 12,000,000 acres (49,000 km2) of land covering most of what is now the modern U.S. state of Maryland to Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore as a proprietary colony.

Although Rebecca Dent-Addison had children by her first husband, her remarriage appears to have caused a family rift and she deeded Gisbrough to Thomas alone.

[6] Col. Addison enlarged his estate by purchasing two adjacent tracts, "The Pasture" and "Pencott's Invention", from step-son Peter Dent in December 1686.

[12][13][b] Thomas Grafton Addison sold about half of Bellevue by 1826, and at his death the remainder was transferred to local planter Zacariah Berry Sr. to pay debts.

Because Bellevue occupied high ground suitable for artillery, the U.S. federal government seized the property, demolished Bellevue mansion, and built Fort Greble (located west of the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SW and Elmira Street SW).

[18] In 1873, the U.S. federal government purchased 90 acres (360,000 m2) of Bellevue (consisting of the western half of the old Berry tract) and added this land to the adjacent Naval Gun Factory.

[13] In 1906, the District of Columbia constructed the five-story Home for the Aged and the Infirm at Blue Plains, adjacent to the southeast corner of Bellevue.

Due to critical resource shortages caused by World War II, the structure was meant to be temporary.

[30] In the fall of 1970, the Madeline V. Leckie Elementary School opened at the old Patterson Elementary site on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SW.[31] Bellevue lost most of its retail business in the 1980s, when a sharp rise in the use of crack cocaine in the city led to soaring crime rate.

[32] Another federal facility relocated adjacent to Bellevue when, in 1984, the Architect of the Capitol moved its Lanham Tree Nursery from Poplar Point to at vacant site at the intersection of Blue Plains Drive SW and Shepherd Parkway SW.[33] Poverty in the Bellevue neighborhood worsened from 1980 to 2000.

In the second tier of decline (11 to 9 percent drops) were Van Ness (also called Forest Hills), Fairlawn/Twining, Congress Heights/Bellevue, and Eastland Gardens/Kenilworth.

[38] Community of Hope, a local nonprofit, opened the four-story, $26 million Conway Health and Resource Center at 4 Atlantic Street SW in January 2014.

[32] In 2015, the 49-unit Trinity Plaza mixed-use apartment and retail complex opened at the intersection of South Capitol and Atlantic Street SW.[41] In 2015, a local real estate firm concluded that Bellevue is "on the cusp of new economic development growth."

The firm pointed to redevelopment of the South Capitol Shopping Center into a mixed-use facility, construction of the new Bellevue/William O. Lockridge Public Library, completion of the Danbury Station and Trinity Plaza housing developments, streetscape changes, and abandoned-property seizures.

[45] The combination of high crime and poverty meant that housing prices in the Bellevue/Congress Heights/Washington Highlands area were some of the most inexpensive in the city.

[45] Bellevue overlooks Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, and is just 10 minutes by car from the United States Capitol.

[21] Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, the Naval Research Laboratory, the D.C. Fire Department Training Center, the D.C. Metropolitan Police Academy, the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority's Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant, and the Architect of the Capitol's tree nursery are adjacent to Bellevue to the west.

[48] Colonel Edward M. Lavin (USAF, Retired) grew up on 1st Street SW in the Bellevue neighborhood.

[49] The D.C. Public Library board of trustees voted in July 2011 to rename the new building Bellevue after the neighborhood where it is located.

But in September 2011, D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray introduced legislation to rename the building after William O. Lockridge, a local community activist who died in January 2011.

These building were temporarily closed in 1995 when a city budget crisis left the District of Columbia Department of Parks and Recreation with too few staff to keep them open.

[54] In 2012, the District government announced a $30 million program to upgrade a number of playgrounds and recreation centers throughout the city.

[56] About 1948, the National Capital Planning Commission opened a second playground in Bellevue, the Bald Eagle Recreation Center.

[57] The recreation center received renovations from private groups and a donation from the campaign of Mayor Marion Barry in February 1995.