History

By Frank Leone In 1902, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), a patriotic organization composed of female decedents of those who served in the American revolutionary war, were seeking a home. After considerable research, they purchased undeveloped marshy Foggy Bottom Square 173 – bounded by 17th and 18th, C and D streets. Their first building was Memorial Continental Hall on 17th Street. Built in 1904-10, it serves as both the DAR headquarters and a Revolutionary W

At the Martin Luther King Public Library (901 G St. NW). The DC History Conference has been going for over 50 years! Register now for the FREE interdisciplinary, community conference with presentations about the past, present, and future of D.C. The Conference welcomes students, community members, educators, artists, storytellers, and cultural heritage workers. Stop by to say hello to Denise Vogt and Frank Leone, co-chairs of the FBA History Project, who will join other his

By Frank Leone St. Paul's Parish Episcopal Church (2430 K St.) has a long history, with its original church built on Washington Circle in 1868. The current church was built in 1947-48, when the George Washington University prevailed upon the U.S. government to demolish the church’s original building to build the (since relocated) GWU Hospital. St. Paul’s gothic style church on K Street. (F. Leone Dec. 2025) St. Paul’s Parish was founded in 1866 and built its first church in

By Frank Leone & Denise Vogt To celebrate its fifth anniversary, the Foggy Bottom Association History Project made a presentation to the FBA’s March Community Meeting at the West End Library. Co-Chairs Denise Vogt and Frank Leone briefly discussed Foggy Bottom’s History, the History Project’s activities, and some stories from the Historic District. (You can see the presentation HERE.) FBA President John George then shared the history of his residence at 915 26th St. and fo

By Frank Leone The massive Udall Department of the Interior building (1849 C St. NW) was the first of the New Deal generation of federal buildings. The Interior headquarters features more New Deal era artworks than any other Federal building – they can be viewed by calling to reserve a free tour (Tuesday and Thursdays at 2 pm). The Department of the Interior at night - The building covers 5.5 acres spanning two city blocks (bordered by 18th and 19th Streets, C to E Streets NW

By Frank Leone George Washington University’s northeast corner of 22 nd and H Streets has a plaque recognizing the site as the former home of Underground Railroad conductor and abolitionist Rev. Leonard Grimes . The corner also features a bronze statue of Aleksandr Pushkin, the founder of modern Russian literature. The two have more in common than you might think. Pushkin’s great grandfather was an African who arrived in St. Petersburg as an enslaved boy and became the godso

By Denise Vogt and Frank Leone One benefit of immersing oneself in the neighborhood’s history is rediscovering the stories of its residents. For many families, it was the Black women who held this community and their families together. Meet Angeline James (1877-1979). She resided at 2507 I Street and lived to be over 100 years old. She was born in Halifax, Va. and her parents were freed slaves. She was married and widowed twice and had a good friend named Kathleen. She took

By Frank Leone Washington D.C. appropriately named its first purpose built Junior High School for African American students after John R. Francis (now Francis Education Center ). He was a notable African American doctor, civic leader, educator who was familiar with the Foggy Bottom neighborhood, having operated a private sanitorium at 2112 Pennsylvania Avenue. Known as “Washington’s leading colored physician,” Francis practiced medicine in D.C. for 35 years and his sanitori

By Frank Leone Francis School (2426 N St. NW) was built in 1927 with additions in 1929,1953 and 2024, but its historic core retains sufficient integrity to convey its architectural and historical significance. The D.C. Historic Preservation Office granted it historic landmark status on December 18, 2025 with a period of significance of 1927-1953. Formerly Francis Junior High School, the building is important as the first Junior High purpose-built for African American stude

By Denise Vogt and Frank Leone If the walls could talk, imagine the history we could share. Let’s start with what we have discovered. For example, in 1922, 2400 I Street resident Alan Phillips, age 20, was one of three enterprising FBWE boys who attempted to hike to New York City to see Babe Ruth in the World Series. They were arrested in Baltimore as runaways, but were released and told to return to Washington, so they did (see articles below). This is just one of the stor

By Denise Vogt & Frank Leone, Co-Chairs It’s hard to believe, but the Foggy Bottom Association History Project has completed five years of researching and sharing Foggy Bottom neighborhood history. In 2025, we retained and supervised two student interns from George Washington University to provide content for the House History pages , updated the Historic District Study Area House Map Project , continued our regular posts on the Funkstown history blog (which now has 150 en

By Frank Leone and Denise Vogt The Foggy Bottom Association History Project Funkstown blog is now five years old and contains 150 posts! The articles appear in the Foggy Bottom Association ’s Foggy Bottom News every two weeks and are then posted at our Funkstown blog site , which you can explore using the search function or just scroll through. Here are some interesting stories covered in Funkstown. (Click the links to read the articles with photos.) · Native Ameri

By Denise Vogt Check the FBA Instagram daily as posts cover a variety of subjects . The FBA’s Instagram ( @foggybottomdc ) account documents the Foggy Bottom and West End neighborhood events, the unusual and the interesting. If you are out and about in FBWE and take photos and short videos, we’d love to post them. Submit your images to denisev@foggybottomassociation.org . The FBA IG account posts 2-3 times a week, has 973 followers with 23.1K views in the last 30 days. He

Did you know that you can view over 50 years of the Foggy Bottom Association’s Foggy Bottom News online ? Here’s our Holiday issue from December 1972 featuring an article on St. Mary’s Episcopal Church and a solicitation for the second FBA Art Show.

By Frank Leone Foggy Bottom is known for its Victorian brick rowhouses, some with faux Federalist features. But Steve Knight, president of The Art Deco Society of Washington , recently led a tour highlighting Art Deco (and Art Deco-adjacent) buildings in Foggy Bottom. The tour started at the one of the D.C.’s most beautiful buildings, the National Academy of Sciences , whose “Alexandrian” design fused Greek, Byzantine, Egyptian, and Art Deco elements. Many of the buildings o

By Frank Leone Foggy Bottom boasts the smallest firehouse in Washington, D.C. and it has had to fight to keep its treasured landmark. Engine Company No. 23 sits in the heart of George Washington University (2119 G Street). Built in 1910, the building is a modest, two-story red brick firehouse featuring an Arts and Crafts interpretation of the Italian Renaissance Revival style. It was intended to foster civic pride as well as protect the community. The firehouse is a contribut

From 2004 through at least 2006, the Foggy Bottom Association’s Foggy Bottom News was published in the now-defunct Georgetown Current . George Washington University’s Gelman Library Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) has generously digitized those two years and you can access them here , as well as the Foggy Bottom News back to 1958 here . Even better, Dalton Alves of SCRC did some “web archaeology” and uncovered PDF editions of the Foggy Bottom News from 2008 to 20

By Frank Leone During the Civil War, Foggy Bottom was home to Camp Fry and the Veterans Reserve (Invalid) Corps troops that helped save Washington from confederate attack. Foggy Bottom also housed Union army supply depots, soldiers’ barracks, military bands, hospitals, camp grounds, a huge horse stable, a port on the Potomac, a stately home requisitioned for the Army (the F Street House ), D.C.’s first office building which housed some of the War Department (the Winder Buildi

By Denise Vogt The red brick plaza area on 26 th Street now enjoys a larger garden thanks to D.C.’s Department of Parks and Recreation. This fall, the island bed was extended about 4 feet for the addition of evergreens, a tree, and groundcover. Many of the existing plants were relocated to the corner bed by The Griffin. The last time the garden was modified was in 2003, by now Historic District resident, Denise Vogt, (retired landscape designer) at the request of garden enth

By Frank Leone We are nearing Halloween, so let’s start with the scary stuff. Albert H. Fish (1870-1936) was perhaps the most notorious serial killer in American history, known as the original bogeyman. He was born in Washington, D.C. In 1875, when he was five years old, his father, a ship captain, died, leaving his mother with too many children to care for. She entrusted Albert to an orphanage until age nine. He later moved to New York. In 1917, his wife ran off with their

A large crowd gathered in the Watergate Retail Plaza on October 10 th to view Laurie Munn’s “Watergate Portraits.” The Watergate Museum and sponsors hosted the event. The exhibition will be on view until January 31 st . Check the Museum’s web site for opening hours. (F.Leone Oct 2025) Up next : GW & The Watergate Museum present acclaimed journalist and historian Garrett Graff, author of Watergate: A New History, who will discuss the myths and realities of Watergate. Wedn