25TH STREET 800 BLOCK OVERVIEW

The row houses on the east side of 25th Street transition from the typical Foggy Bottom facades to a group of six houses with unusual and fanciful combinations of architectural elements, which may have appealed to German brewery workers. This group of narrow houses represent the creativity and the skill level of builders and craftsmen. At the end of 25th Street is a distinctive yellow turreted house built in 1890, sometimes referred to as "Foggy Bottom's Octagon House."

The corner of the west side of 25th St. and I St. features a blue house with a paved front yard (830 25th St./2500 I Street), which is the oldest house in the Historic District. It is recorded as built in 1872, and is the only remaining wood frame house. It has been reported (but not confirmed) that the house was built before the Civil War and was a stop in the Underground Railroad for freedom-seeking African Americans. Next door are four relatively plain individual buildings with varying roof heights and greater depth than the houses across the street. To the south of those buildings is the Plaza Co-op, but from at least the 1920s to the 1950s, it was the site of the African American Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church (814-816 25th St.)