Most of the land belonged to Notley Young, under the name of Youngsboro[5] or Isherwood[2][3] or Mill Tract[3] by the 1790s.

The other land owners were Daniel Carroll (who owned the hill on which the Capitol was built), George Walker and Abraham Young.

However, nearly all of the land remained undeveloped, used as farmland to cultivate fruits and vegetables for the fresh market in the more developed sections of the city.

In the 1830s, the B&O Railroad constructed its Washington Branch, which entered the city of Washington at roughly 9th and Boundary Streets and proceeded through the neighborhood down I Street NE and Delaware Avenue NE to the New Jersey Avenue Station located between the current Union Station (built in 1907) and the Capitol.

[10] Many Russian-Jewish immigrants settled on H Street during the early 1900s, founding Ezras Israel Congregation in 1907.

[11][12] Union Station's construction destroyed the poor Irish neighborhood known as Swampoodle, buried Tiber Creek and allowed for development to increase.

In addition, two of the most recognizable and popular locations were the whites-only Moderne style Atlas Theater at 1331 H Street which opened in 1938.

Looting, vandalism, and arson made Near Northeast one of the worst casualties of the riots, with many burned-out or otherwise destroyed properties burned out for decades.

[15] Theaters, jazz clubs, performance spaces and exotic restaurants appeared in the neighborhood.

A new wave of residents has rapidly changed the area with sit-down restaurants, hip bars, more upscale retail establishments.

[23] The property changes hand several times from the 1960s to the 1990s until the building is leased in 1999 to the "H Street Self Storage Center".

[24] Finally, in 2014, the land was sold and the buildings demolished to be replaced by the current ""Apollo” luxury apartments and the Whole Foods.

It would become a well-known local institution caring for elderly poor residents regardless of race, sex or religion.

[29] It was visited on January 22, 1990 by First Lady Barbara Bush to read Three Billy Goats Gruff to a group of children as part of her Foundation for Family Literacy.

[35][36] It was also a venue used for one of the inauguration balls of President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953 and by the Civil rights movement with Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X speaking there in 1959 and 1961.

Realtors tried to introduce the portmanteau SoFlo (a combination of South of Florida Avenue), hoping to attract an affluent, younger demographic.

A modern streetcar runs from the back of Union Station down to Benning Road since February 27, 2016.

Near Northeast is located in entirely in Ward 6 and represented locally by Council Member Charles Allen.