It is north of Fells Point, south of Johns Hopkins Hospital, east of Old Town and Jonestown and west of Butchers Hill.

The neighborhood surrounds Broadway (formerly known as Market Street in Colonial times) running north from Fells Point to terminate at East North Avenue and is named for the now-defunct Washington Medical College later known as the Church Home and Hospital on Broadway where famed writer/poet Edgar Allan Poe was taken to die in 1849 after being found comatose in a downtown Baltimore street.

In the median strip of Broadway is a statue of seven-term mayor of Baltimore, Ferdinand Claiborne Latrobe.

Washington Hill is home to many descendants of Irish, Czech, Russian, and Polish immigrants, as well as Appalachian people and Lumbee Native Americans.

In 1974 Citizens for Washington Hill was established as a federal and city sponsored organization to create a revitalization plan for the community.