Judiciary Square is a neighborhood in the northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C., the vast majority of which is occupied by various federal and municipal courthouses and office buildings.

The area became a fashionable place to live, despite many lots on the northern side being undeveloped, and Goose Creek passing through the neighborhood.

Prominent residents during the 19th-century include Vice President John C. Calhoun, statesman Daniel Webster, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Roger B. Taney, and architect Charles Bulfinch.

During the Civil War, the buildings and open lots around the Square were commandeered to treat wounded Union soldiers.

Alexander "Boss" Shepherd improved many areas of the neighborhood by having the streets graded and paved, sewer lines installed, and adding landscaping, which created a park-like setting in the Square.

By that time the residents in the neighborhood were mostly lawyers, doctors, professors, and other white-collar professions, due to the proximity of the city hall, hospital, and Columbian College, now known as George Washington University.

[1] Many of the structures in the Square are judicial buildings, owned by either the federal or local government, as was originally planned in the early history of the neighborhood.

2, John Marshall Park and its statues, and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, although it incorporates the façades of several historic buildings.

[1] When the decision was made to create a new capital city after the Revolutionary War, President George Washington selected engineer and architect Pierre Charles L’Enfant to design it.

The plan was to create a design that would form a triangle between the United States Capitol, the White House, and the Supreme Court Building.

The neighborhood around the planned Square was on sloping land that gradually reached street level at Pennsylvania Avenue.

[2] Robert King produced a fourth version of a city map which showed Judiciary Square as rectangular.

The first major building erected in the area was the District of Columbia City Hall, designed by Hadfield, which was constructed from 1820 to the 1840s.

The city's registrar, William Hewitt, built a large home near 6th and D Streets, a few doors down from architect Charles Bulfinch.

By the 1850s-1860s, its proximity to the courthouses attracted lawyers, judges, and clerks to the neighborhood, while its location between the White House and the Capitol made it ideal for government employees.

Among its most prominent residents around this time were Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, Senator Thomas Hart Benton, Vice President John C. Calhoun, statesman Daniel Webster, and Mayor Richard Wallach.

[1][2] There were still many empty lots on the north and east sides of the Square during this period, possibly due to the sloping terrain or proximity to the jail.

[2] During the Civil War, the buildings surrounding the Square were commandeered by the federal government and used as medical facilities for wounded Union soldiers.

[1][2][3] One building constructed during the war and faced the Square contained a small library, founded by Elida B. Rumsey, and her fiancé, John A Fowle.

Congress allocated money for them to construct a one-story building on the Square to use as a library, which was completed on their wedding day in 1863.

By the end of 19th century, many office buildings were constructed in the neighborhood, signaling a transformation of the surrounding area from residential to commercial.

The following year the General Jose de San Martin Memorial, by sculptor Augustin-Alexandre Dumont, was installed in the center of the Square, where it remained for several decades.

The United States Tax Court Building at 3rd and D Streets was completed in 1974, and the following year, the H. Carl Moultrie Courthouse opened across from the Square's southern end.

Another museum that opened nearby was in the Keck Center, home of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, until it closed in 2017.

[6] The District government finalized a deal in 2010 with the Louis Dreyfus Group to construct Capitol Crossing, a 2,100,000-square-foot (200,000 m2) mixed-use development in the airspace over the Center Leg Freeway (Interstate 395).

The original building and a modern addition are now the Lillian & Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum, which opened in 2023.

A large portion of the neighborhood also contains contributing properties to the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site, listed on the NRHP on October 15, 1966, and the DCIHS on June 19, 1973.

[1] The next oldest public artwork in the neighborhood is the large George Gordon Meade Memorial, designed by Charles Grafly and erected in 1927, which stands in front of the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse.

The statue of William Blackstone, designed by Paul Wayland Bartlett and installed in 1943, is also located in front of the Prettyman Courthouse.

[14] A few blocks east of Judiciary Square is Washington Union Station, where commuters on the MARC Train and Amtrak arrive.