Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom visited the area in 1991, at a time when Marshall Heights was in the throes of a violent crack cocaine epidemic.

[a] The neighborhood was initially part of the "Marshall tract", an extensive parcel of land in both the District of Columbia and Prince George's County which had not been subdivided.

John Payne was a free African American man who owned a farm east of Benning Road between what would later be C and E Streets SE.

[11] After World War I, the real estate developers who had inherited or purchased various blocks of land in Marshall Heights began selling it off at low prices.

Since there were no housing covenants excluding blacks from owning property there, large numbers of African Americans began purchasing lots in Marshall Heights.

By the late 1920s, Marshall Heights still lacked a city drinking water system and sewers, and the area was completely without streetlights.

African Americans fleeing the Deep South, which had been particularly hard-hit by the Great Depression, were able to buy lots in Marshall Heights and erect shacks there.

[4][14] On February 2, 1935, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt made a visit to several poor areas of the District of Columbia, including Marshall Heights.

She had long been concerned with substandard housing,[15] and visited areas of the city with large numbers of alley dwellings and people displaced from their homes by the Great Depression.

[16][b] Roosevelt found dwellings in Marshall Heights to be almost all sheds, and city relief workers began to encourage people to leave the neighborhood and move into better housing elsewhere.

[21] At Roosevelt's urging, the District of Columbia Emergency Works Administration (established in early 1934)[22] acted swiftly to improve living conditions in Marshall Heights.

But the city used inferior materials and construction in these efforts, justifying the "temporary" nature of the improvements by arguing that area would soon undergo a "complete redevelopment".

[27] In 1949, President Harry S. Truman proposed spending $2 million to purchase land and raze all structures in Marshall Heights.

[31] In an attempt to support the redevelopment initiative, on May 17, 1949, the NCPC and the city both imposed a freeze on construction permits for the Marshall Heights area.

[39] City officials refused, arguing that with half of all homes in the neighborhood facing condemnation for safety reasons, redevelopment was the only option.

[40] The city also argued that it would be too expensive to build water and sewer lines along the existing street plan, and that residents would be unable to afford the hookup and frontage fees.

In September 1949, District engineers staked out sewer, water, and natural gas lines along two streets in Marshall Heights to demonstrate the difficulties in construction and prove how costly the effect would be to residents.

Once more Marshall Heights citizens complained to Congress, and in March 1950 the House Appropriations Committee threatened to cut off all funding for the NCPC if it did not lift the freeze.

[4] City engineers estimated in May 1950 that it would take $2 million to give the 500 homes in Marshall Heights water and sewer lines, and to grade and pave every street.

[50] A total of 348 homes had been cited for housing and building violations by the end of 1958, but city inspectors revealed that just 78 had been repaired and brought up to code.

[52] The inspection program was to have ended in 1959, but the city kept it going because so few Marshall Heights residents had the money to make repairs or improvements to their homes.

[4] Low home values as well as a number of empty lots drew middle-class African Americans into Marshall Heights throughout the 1960s.

Addicts from as far away as Baltimore and Frederick in Maryland and from West Virginia flocked to Drake Place SE in Marshall Heights to buy crack.

[68] The queen was viewing four homes built by the Marshall Heights Community Development Organization, and financially backed by the District of Columbia.

Accompanying the queen on her visited were First Lady Barbara Bush, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Jack Kemp, and District of Columbia Mayor Sharon Pratt Dixon.

The visit received worldwide attention when 67-year-old homeowner Alice Frazier exuberantly hugged the queen (a major breach of royal etiquette).

In 1989, the Marshall Heights Community Development Organization (MHCDO) secured financing from the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and purchased four empty lots[71] on the 5300 block of Drake Place SE.

[95] The $4.9 million cost ($21,327 per unit) was higher than that allowed by law, and required special approval from Robert C. Weaver, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

[101] On November 27, 1973, 11-year-old Penny L. Schroeder was murdered in Clinton, Maryland, her body found in a wooded area just a few blocks from her elementary school.

[106][109] On September 4, 1974, Holmes was convicted by the Prince George's County Circuit Court of murder, rape, false imprisonment, sodomy, and carrying a dangerous weapon openly.