2417 I STREET NW
Year Built
1885
Click photo below to see full sized image.
D. Vogt, 2022
History
This two-story, two-bay brick rowhouse was built in 1885, one of a group of four houses built by Duvall & Marr to serve as rental property. It has an English basement and a back fenced garden area. In 1890, Thomas H, Alexander owned the four rows at 2413-2419 I St.
The mid-1950s were a transition period in Foggy Bottom. The 2415-2419 I St. houses, built 1885, provide an example - No. 2415 was occupied by several families totaling more than 25 people. It was heated with a wood-burning stove and had an outdoor toilet. The No. 2417 house had just been gutted and was being renovated. The No. 2419 house, windows and doors missing, was abandoned and condemned.
The house’s original façade was damaged as a result of Metro subway construction down the center of I Street in the early 1970s and has been rebuilt. From time to time, one can feel the vibrations of the metro trains traveling down I Street inside the house. There were significant renovations in 1954, 1990, and 2020.
The house has a distinctive original custom decorative black cast iron railing and fence, installed in the 1950s. A variety of black iron is used in fencing, stairways, and railings throughout the neighborhood.
Resident/Owner
At the time of construction of the four houses at 2413-2419 I Street, Duvall and Marr also obtain permits to build five brick alley dwellings on Snows Court, directly behind the I Street houses. Duvall owned and rented out the properties from 1885 to 1889, when he sold them to Thompson Alexander, a real estate and insurance agent. The properties were held as a group, until 1908 when 2417 was sold separately.
One of the first residents of the house was Rosetta A. Boston, a teacher, who lived there (according to the 1887 City Directory). Other residents:
1890 - Thomas H. Alexander, owner (Deeds); Rosetta A. Boston, teacher; Maria E. Boston, washing; (City Directory)
1900 - Mary White and daughters, (City Directory)
1903 - William H. Reed, a porter (City Directory)
1907 - Ella White, passed away in 1907 at age 40 (D.C. Health Office Record)
1910 - Spencer Williams, messenger, (City Directory)
1914 - Murray Barker (City Directory)
1920-1921 - Della M. Shaw (renter) (Census) - Ms. Shaw was a single 46 year old African American, born in North Carolina. She worked as a cook in a lunch room. But she also ran her own bakery - The Boston House Pastry Shop - out of her home (See photo No. 8 below). She died in 1937 and had a memorial service at 19th St. Baptist Church.
1921 - PH Harris (owner) (Deeds)
1923 - Ms. Annie Jefferson (City Directory occupation not disclosed)
1952 - With the coming of Foggy Bottom redevelopment, the house was purchased by developer Benjamin Burch in 1952 and sold to Rhea Z. Radin (1910-1991) the same year. It was a shell of building when she remodeled it and moved in in 1954. The house next door (2415) had several families with 25 people living in it and the house on the other side (2419) was vacant. By the next year, Radin had entered the real estate business and sold additional houses in the historic district. In 1960, Radin moved to Capital Hill. Radin was born in New York, grew up in California, and was a psychiatric social worker before entering real estate.
1970 - 1973 - Rhea Radin (Deeds)
1973 -1984 -D. Lowell Jones (owner)
1984 - Robert (Coach Bob) and Norene Vogt purchased the house Their daughter Denise and a roommate, Lisa Tate, rented the house for five years; both walked to work. Lisa Tate and Ragnar Thoresen rented the house from 1987 to 1990.
In the early 1990s, Bob and Norrene sold their house in suburban Lanham, Maryland and spent the next 30 years of their lives in the house. They were community activists and held positions on the FBA Board. After their death and then significant renovations, their daughter and husband moved into the house in 2000.
2000 - Frank Leone and Denise Vogt
Recollections
I recall seeing the house for sale while walking through the neighborhood with my mother in the early 1980s. We might have parked the car in Foggy Bottom and walked to the Kennedy Center. Once inside the house, the baby blue-colored iron railings on the stairs made us laugh, because we knew they would not remain that color for long. Also, a small – and uninsulated – brick bathroom room had been attached to the rear of the house. I don’t recall that we thought the house was small, because we both were so taken by the house’s charm with its compact features and its location.
- Denise Vogt (renter, owner, 2000-present), May 2022
Source Material
Foggy Bottom News, Rhea Radin, “From the Bottom Up,”
DC HPO, Historyquest DC
U.S. Census, 1920
Boyd’s City Directory of Washington D.C., 1887, 1903, 1921, 1923
DC Recorder of Deeds, property records
“2415 Eye Street, NW,” Traceries (May 1984)
George Beveridge, "City's Foggy Bottom See Test Ground of Urban Renewal," Evening Star, Oct. 23, 1955
FBA History Project, "Working-Class Row Houses." Clio: Your Guide to History. https://theclio.com/tour/2098/3
FBA History Project, "The Historic District's Longest Row." Clio: Your Guide to History. https://theclio.com/tour/2098/18
Document, Vogt Collection
Evening/Sunday Star, Jan. 15 and 17, 1937
Washington Times, Aug. 14, 1920
2415-2419 I St., July 1955 (Vogt Collection)
2417 I St., 1956 (Washington Star)
2417 I St. rear façade renovation - extension - door to lower right connected to privy, 1990
2415-2419 I St., early 1960s (Vogt collection)
Vogt family, 1980 (Vogt collection)
2417 I St house plat, May 1972
2415-2419 I St. during renovation (Progressive Renewal), Wash Post (Nov. 1959)
1920 - Della Shaw's ad for the "Boston House Pastry Shop," operated out of the house, Washington Times, Aug. 14, 1920