Construction on the rail yard began in 1907 and was complete within a year; many of its facilities were demolished in 1953 and 1954 as railroads switched from coal-fired locomotives to diesel-fueled or electric engines.

In the 21st century, the area has undergone some gentrification, although people living in the residential core of Ivy City remain very poor and unemployment is high.

The southern boundary of this "patent" (as title to land was called) began about where East Capitol Street meets the river, and ran north-northwest to about Trinidad Avenue NE.

[b] On April 3, 1871, landowners George Oyster and Edward Fenwick sold their property to Frederick W. Jones, a director of the Georgetown Savings Bank and a local real estate developer.

[26] The following year, on August 30, 1879, Charles Stewart and Mrs. Louis Fethervitch sold their parcels of land (both of which were adjacent to Ivy City) to the National Fair Grounds Association (NFGA).

[33] Buildings on the ground housed hundreds of exhibits featuring local products, services, and foods, and artworks and sporting events were held every day.

[47] New Jersey racetrack owners George Engeman and Albert Gleason leased the Ivy City track in August 1893 with the aim of having a 25-day "winter season" of racing in November.

[48] Engeman was initially opposed by the Washington Jockey Club, which was in the process of opening a racetrack in the Benning neighborhood east of the Anacostia River.

But with development rapidly expanding in the area and the need for streets pressing, Congress enacted legislation on December 3, 1900, requiring the railroad to give up the right of way by 1905.

The act allowed the B&O to purchase land in the Eckington neighborhood for a large rail yard, and for construction of a new passenger terminal in downtown Washington.

[73] The new rail yard, located about 1 mile (1.6 km) outside the Federal City limits,[74] included two 100-foot (30 m) long roundhouses, each surrounded by 25 short tracks leading to train sheds where engines could be stores or worked on.

Just over a year later, the District of Columbia Public Schools board of trustees approved plans to spend $4,500 ($152,600 in 2023 dollars) to purchase land at 1900 Gallaudet Street NE and build a two-room schoolhouse.

[89] DCPS proposed purchasing an addition 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2) of land and erecting a new four-room elementary school at a cost of $35,000 ($1,187,000 in 2023 dollars) in 1908, but Congress refused to approve the expenditure.

Long-term housing and care, defined as anything longer than a few weeks, was provided by the agency to which the child was assigned (such as St. Elizabeths Psychiatric Hospital, the city youth detention center, or a foster home).

American railroads, which until this time had used coal-fueled locomotives, began switching to diesel fuel or using overhead electrical wires for powering engines.

The Model Cities Program was a federally funded effort which allowed local residents to redesign, revitalize, and reconstruct neighborhoods most severely affected by poverty.

The District of Columbia National Guard even used arc lamps to illuminate streets and alleys in Ivy City at night in order to discourage drug dealers.

Ivy City was one of just three neighborhoods in the District with combined zoning, which hampered its residential and retail nature, and most people who lived there worked for either the railroad or for trash hauling firms.

Leaders of Mandala Inc., a nonprofit long active in the community, denounced Barry and Spaulding and decried the terrible housing conditions still extant in the neighborhood.

In August 1997, a D.C. Superior Court judge held that the city could order the trash transfer station closed under general nuisance and public health laws.

District of Columbia Department of Public Health officials said the company had removed the insulation without proper safety procedures from its buildings, and then dumped them in an area where residents could come into contact with the cancer-causing asbestos.

[187] Ivy City residents discovered in September, 2003 that the District government intended to establish a homeless shelter at a warehouse at 1355–1357 New York Avenue NE.

Ivy City residents were angered that their neighborhood, which already suffered from a high level of vagrancy, would attract a large number of homeless people.

[203] Philip Pannell, formerly the liaison to the LGBT community for Mayor Williams, later went much further, angrily denouncing opposition to the clubs as "sheer homophobia", saying that many Ivy City residents "don't fear gay people, they just hate them.

But in June 2007, the 2120 Club was shuttered by city officials after the D.C. Zoning Commission discovered that Siegel had listed his property as "office space" rather than an adult business.

[222] Residents did become angry, however, when D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray announced a plan in June 2012 to build a temporary parking lot on the ground of the Crummell School to accommodate 65 intercity passenger buses while a bus terminal near Union Station was being rebuilt.

[223] The Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy argued that Gray's action occurred because Ward 5 council member Harry Thomas Jr. had recently gone to prison and his successor, Kenyan McDuffie, had only been in office a few months.

[229] On April 1, 2014, Gray was defeated in the Democratic primary by D.C. City Council member Muriel Bowser,[230] who went on to win the general election on November 5, 2014.

[224] Ivy City's economy was built around the three liquor stores, two take-out restaurants, Love nightclub and D.C. government agencies (the group home, school bus and public works vehicle parking lots, halfway house, and Youth Services Center).

But while the industrial sections along the neighborhood's eastern and western ends and along New York Avenue NE were improving, much of the residential area remained distressed.