Foggy Bottom
Historic District
House History Map
D.C.'s Foggy Bottom has a unique history reaching from its colonial past, its African American community, its German and Irish immigrant industrial period, and through demographic and economic changes wrought by urban renewal, development, highway construction, and GWU expansion.
Our Foggy Bottom House History Map is an interactive and innovative project that documents the community, its houses, and the lives of its residents. With a combination of historic maps, census and other data, detailed house descriptions, photographs and documents the project creates a multi-faceted view of the neighborhood.
​The four-block Historic District comprises 135 houses, each with stories to tell about the neighborhood from the 1800s to the current day. The map also includes another 100+ "non-contributing" properties and land west of the Historic District that was occupied but now is covered by freeways.
The project combines individual House History pages for each building in the Foggy Bottom Historic District Study Area (focusing on the period from 1870 to 1910 with plans for expansion), with the map. Each house has a link to its individual house history page. Toggle back and forth between the map and the individual house histories. Watch the video for more tips: Historic District House History Map - Layer by Layer, House by House
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Access the Individual House History Pages
To reach each individual house House History page:
1. Click on the house at the House History Page by using this link
2. Or, click on the house on the Foggy Bottom House History map (pan and zoom like any online map and click features for pop-ups).
For inspiration, here's a post on three African American women with links to their House History pages.
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Contribute to the History
Help build the House History Map project by submitting information, documents, recollections or photographs about your house or others in the neighborhood. After review, we'll add it to the House History pages. Just email us.
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Start by reviewing any materials you have collected about your house. If you have neighbors or friends who have left Foggy Bottom but have information to contribute - please share this page with them.
For additional research, a good place to start is the DC History Center's Building Research Guide, and you can find more on our History Resources Page.
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Special thanks to The Foggy Bottom Defense and Improvement Corporation, the DC History Center for hosting the map, and Brian Kraft of Visualizing DC History.
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Examples of the House History page (left) and House History Map and layers (right).
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