Capitol Hill is the residential neighbourhood that surrounds the US Capitol, and it is one of the finest Victorian townhouse districts in America. The streets immediately east and southeast of the Capitol — A Street SE, East Capitol Street, Independence Avenue — are lined with Italianate, Queen Anne, and Romanesque row houses built for Congressmen and their staff in the decades after the Civil War.
Eastern Market (7th Street SE) is the neighbourhood's social centre: a city market operating since 1873, with food vendors inside and a weekend outdoor market for produce, crafts, and antiques. Pennsylvania Avenue SE has a strip of restaurants and bars that serves the neighbourhood's residents. The Library of Congress, across from the Capitol, holds the largest collection of books in the world and is open to visitors.