 The district was defined and recognized by the city, then the state and finally the National Register when historic preservationists in the city worried about the effects of urban renewal on a neglected asset.The Dutch Reformed Church had only recently been saved from demolition after almost a decade of vacancy; before that, the Crawford House had come close to being bulldozed for a school parking lot.In 1977, the city council enlarged the district greatly and renamed it the East End Historic District, including Washington's Headquarters State Historic Site and other buildings in the neighborhoods south of Broadway.