More and more veteran soldiers began to gather in Washington.
Unable to get a response from the White House and Congress, they now could only stay in Washington and needed a place to reside there.
Therefore, these people gathered in the suburbs of Washington, Anacostia.
Here they built a camp on flat ground—a shantytown, which people later referred to as "Hooverville."
They also occupied a piece of vacant land on Pennsylvania Avenue, where there were some abandoned buildings, right below the Capitol Building.
More and more veteran soldiers trickled into Washington until their total numbers reached between 15,000 and 20,000.
Some of these veterans even brought their wives and children along. As time passed, the Anacostia camp took on a semi-military, semi-family atmosphere, with clothes washed at home hanging in rows outside the crude huts.
