Mount Pleasant

Residential neighbourhood in the northwest of Washington DC. Mount Pleasant lies some 3 km/2 mi north of the White House, west of Sixteenth Street and east of the National Zoo and Rock Creek Park.

A 19th-century hill retreat for city dwellers, Mount Pleasant has become one of Washington's most mixed communities. In recent years, it has become home to many Salvadorans and other Hispanic immigrants.

Mount Pleasant

City and seat of Henry County, in southeastern Iowa, 40 km/25 mi northwest of Burlington; population (2000) 8,800. A distribution point for livestock, Mount Pleasant also manufactures bus bodies.

First settled in 1834, the state's first courthouse was built here in 1839. The building was replaced in 1871, and again in 1914. The town was home to an early wagon-building industry. Iowa Wesleyan College (founded 1842) is situated here. There is also the Harlan Lincoln home (Harlan's daughter married Abraham Lincoln), and the town was also the home of US physicist James Van Allen.

The Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility and Mental Health Institute is located immediately south of the city.

Mount Pleasant

City and seat of Isabella County, central Michigan, on the Chippewa River, 42 km/26 mi west of Midland; population (1990) 23,300.

In the 1850s Mount Pleasant was an Indian trading post and lumber camp. It then became a farm trade centre, whose development was assured by the arrival of the railway in 1879. It is the site of Central Michigan University (founded 1891) and the Center for Cultural and Natural History. The discovery of oil nearby in 1927 made it the state's petroleum capital, and stimulated the growth of several service industries. The economy is now based on agriculture and the manufacture of car parts, gasoline, processed foods and food-service equipment, and animal feeds. A reservation of the Chippewa people lies just to the east of the city.

Mount Pleasant

Village in Jefferson County, eastern Ohio, 10 km/6 mi northwest of Martins Ferry; population (1990) 500.

The Friends' Meeting House (1814) in Mount Pleasant is the oldest Quaker house of worship west of the Allegheny Mountains. Early settlers included those who journeyed west from Virginia in order to emancipate Black slaves on free territory where they could no longer be taken back into captivity.

Mount Pleasant

Town in Charleston County, southeastern South Carolina; population (2000) 47,600. Mount Pleasant lies just east of Charleston across the Cooper River, overlooking Charleston Harbor.

A resort founded by local planters in the 1690s, Mount Pleasant has grown dramatically in recent decades as a residential and commercial suburb, resort, and retirement haven. In the 1980s alone, its population more than doubled. To the southeast of the town, across the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, lie Sulivan's Island and the Isle of Palms.

Mount Pleasant

City and seat of Titus County, in northeastern Texas, 174 km/108 mi east-northeast of Dallas. Settled in the early 1800s, it is in an area of mixed agriculture, and is a food-processing and former forestry centre. It now refines and ships oil and has diverse manufactures.