The Nacotchtank Native Americans were the first settlers to inhabit the area now known as Fairlawn, living and fishing along the nearby Anacostia River.

[8] In 1663, Lord Baltimore granted ownership of the majority of the area on the south bank of the Anacostia River to George Thompson.

Consequently, in 1818, the privately owned "Upper Navy Yard Bridge" was built over the Anacostia River at 11th Street SE.

[4] Dr. Arthur Christie, a wealthy Englishman, purchased 50 acres (20.25 hectares) of land on the north side of Harrison Street (now the lower portion of Good Hope Road SE) and named his estate Fairlawn.

A Washington Times real estate advertisement from October 1911 listed "NO NEGROES" as one of the neighborhood's supposed "advantages".

[15] The oppressive need for housing during the war, brought about by a massive influx of federal workers to the capital, led to extensive building of homes in Fairlawn and the linking of the neighborhood with other parts of southeast D.C.[15] The southern part of the Washington Metro's Green Line was originally designed to pass over the 11th Street Bridges to the intersection of Good Hope Road SE and Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE.

The Anacostia Branch of the District of Columbia Public Library is located in Fairlawn at 1800 Good Hope Road SE.