Funkstown – Foggy Bottom Historic District Walking Tours!
By Frank Leone
It’s that time of year! Time for our sixth annual now UPDATED “Walkingtown” Foggy Bottom Historic District Walking Tour. It will take place on September 26 at 1 pm starting at the big yellow house. You can sign up here. Check out other DC Events Walkingtown tours here.
Our 75-minute, four-block tour led by Foggy Bottom Association History Project Co-Chairs Frank Leone and Denise Vogt takes you along the tree-lined sidewalks, gardens and alleys as we tell the story of what made Foggy Bottom a Historic District. The tour presents a 19th century working class neighborhood and features 130-year-old alley dwellings and streets lined with 12-foot-wide distinctive brick row houses. Learn the area’s history, how it changed over time, what remains, and what was lost. We share stories of the lives of Irish, German, and Russian immigrants and African American residents who made the area their home. See former corner stores and bars, German brewery worker houses, one of DC’s most notorious alleys, and a 112-year-old livery stable. And, you’ll learn why it’s called Foggy Bottom!
If you can’t join us on September 26, you can participate in our self-guided on-line walking tours (which also have been recently updated) anytime. Choose from three engaging, self-guided online walking experiences for all ages. Use your phone to walk these tours or follow them from home.
· HISTORIC TOUR (Duration: 1 hour) - The easy-to-follow tour leads you though the alleys, streets, and parks of the four-block Historic District. The 19-stop tour tracks the neighborhood’s transition from working class in the 1870s to its current status. (You can also view a video presentation on the walking tour here.)
· ARTS WALKING TOUR (Duration: < 1 hour) - The tour's 13 stops highlight the murals, sculptures, and other public art in the four-block Historic District. The tour includes past Arts in Foggy Bottom installations and background on the artists.
· DISCOVERY WALK - The "Find Family Fun in Foggy Bottom" worksheet allows both adults and children to explore the four-block area and learn about its history, engage in discussion, and find the new playground! Completing the worksheet earns a Junior Historian Certificate.
Do you want to learn more about individual House Histories? You can pull up an individual house history page for each of the 240 houses in the Foggy Bottom Historic District study area from our House History Directory. All house pages include house descriptions and photographs and many also include details about residents, activities, and recollections of specific houses. For example, the big yellow house on corner of New Hampshire and I Street originally housed an Irish American family which ran a grocery store – they later turned over operations to Russian Jewish American and finally a Japanese American family. You can also access the Foggy Bottom Historic District House Map, which includes census, city directory, and other information for each house. The map layer feature gives an amazing view of changes in the area over time.
See you in historic Foggy Bottom!
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