830 25TH STREET NW

The wood paneled blue house with the paved front yard on the corner (830 25th St./2500 I Street) is the oldest house in the Historic District. It is recorded as built in 1872, and is the only remaining wood frame house. The house originally faced I Street (no. 2500), but it has been joined with the house facing 25th Street (no. 830) and the houses are discussed together.

It has been reported (but not confirmed) that this house (or a house at this location) was built before the Civil War and was a stop in the Underground Railroad for freedom-seeking African Americans. Entrance to the house from I Street (note no front door) is through a trap door beneath the shrubbery in the left corner facing I Street. (EHT Traceries)

The Foggy Bottom neighborhood does have confirmed Underground Railroad sites. A plaque marks the location of the house of Leonard Grimes at H and 22nd Streets, on what is now the GWU campus. Grimes (1815-1873) was a free African American who operated as hackney – or horse-drawn cab driver. He assisted enslaved people in gaining their freedom in the 1830s. For this, he was arrested and served two years in the Virginia State penitentiary in Richmond, Virginia. Upon his release, he became a minister and moved to Boston, Massachusetts, becoming a prominent abolitionist leader.

Also, 13-year old Emily Edmondson had been hired out as a maid on 21st and G Streets. In 1848, she joined 76 other enslaved people in an attempt to seek freedom on schooner The Pearl. The ship was captured before it could exit the Potomac and most of the escapees were re-sold into slavery in the deep south. But funds were raised to buy freedom for Emily (and her sister Mary). Emily attended Oberlin College, worked at an African American school in D.C., and later started a family in Maryland. The Pearl incident was commemorated by artist Lynda Andrews-Berry in a sculpture, "Pearl Dream," installed as part of the 2021 Arts in Foggy Bottom exhibition.

Although originally built as a residence, the blue wood frame house had commercial uses. As early as 1877, James Degges lived in and operated a grocery store in the building, and it continued as a grocery store over the decades. In 1914 it was a saloon operated by Jane McInerney and William Biggs. Prohibition in D.C. started in Nov. 1917. In 1918. the location was listed as one of the locations in DC selling the "Wilkins Coffee" brand. In 1925, the same location is listed as a dealer for "Dad's Bread." On a less happy note, The Washington Daily News (April 21, 1930, p.3) reports 37 year-old Freddie Cooper of 812 I Street (colored) was stabbed to death when he insisted on playing his phonograph at 4:00 a.m. at 2500 I Street. The store was a P.G.A. Barney's Market from 1935 to 1937 (Wash. Daily News, Apr 25, 1935 ad.) Resident Helen Barney made the news by catching a 4 1/2 pound large mouth bass in the Tidal Basin on the first day of bass season in D.C. (Wash. Daily News, May 31, 1938) Henry and Stella Rosenblatt operated the Rosenblatt Market at 2500 I St. (now 830 25th St.) from 1939 to the early 1950s, when it moved across K Street to 25th and K (NE corner). Henry was born in Pennsylvania, but his father was a Russian immigrant. When Henry died in 1968, Stella continued to operate the market, but it closed by 1979.

In 1956, Cox & Co., Inc. lists the building as "corner, brick and frame, store and living quarters: condemned. Make an offer" (Evening Star, Oct. 1, 1956, p.44). Later the house was co-joined with the adjacent red brick house (with the entrance on 830 25th Street) and it is currently used as an apartment building.

The 830 25th Street part of the structure is brick and three stories. The front door (25th St.) is protected by a portico supported by brick columns. There is a brick cornice and railing on the roof.