Funkstown: Green’s Court – Gone but not Forgotten

By Frank Leone

In 1890 about 10% of D.C.’s population - generally the poorest 10% - lived in alley dwellings. A 50-year effort to demolish these homes was generally successful, but the Foggy Bottom Historic District alleys include over 30 houses in Snows Court and Hughes Mews. Buildings in the area west of the Historic District’s 26th Street were demolished in the 1960s for the construction of the Potomac Freeway. Only three houses remain on the block (Square 5), bounded by I and K, 26th and 27th Streets (see map below).  Square 5 once contained more than 200 households and an alley known as Green’s (or Greens) Court.

This undated photograph appears to show the entrance to Green’s Court between 907 and 909 27th Street.  (DC History Center)

The first house in Square 5 – and one of the first houses in the City of Washington – was the Peter House on K Street (built 1795). At least two wood frame houses existed in1873, but the first brick houses were built circa 1885. In 1900, at least two Irish American families (a teamster and a day laborer) lived in Green’s Court. Most families, however, were African American. Census records indicate that male occupations included laborer, lime-kiln worker, teamster, delivery wagon driver, farm laborer, plasterer, white-washer, shoemaker, and odd-jobs. Most of the women who reported job were servants or laundresses, and some took in washing. Some residents were long-lived, e.g. Emily Green, who died at age 100, 2633 Green’s Court (April 21, 1912) but many died in infancy, like Renola Harris, age ½ hour, 2621 Green’s Court (Jan. 2, 1908).

Square 5 - bounded by 26th and 27th, I and K streets, with Green’s Court in the center. Note (Briggs) Montgomery School across 27th St. (Baist Map, 1910, Library of Congress)

In 1903, H.P. Montgomery (later Briggs-Montgomery) School opened across 27th Street and served as the neighborhood elementary for African American children. In the 1940s, neighborhood leaders, including the school’s Parent-Teacher Association, attempted to convince the Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA) to replace what had become substandard housing in Square 5 with an affordable housing project, but the ADA rejected the request. (More on that effort in an upcoming Funkstown.)

Newspaper coverage of Green’s Court from the 1890s to the 1940s focused on crime reports (including at least six murders), as was the case with most alley reporting. As most residents were African American, nearly all incidents involved African Americans. Many of the altercations allegedly arose from cheating/stealing at craps games or jealousy over women. Around 1900, several incidents that occurred near  an “Oyster Saloon” operated by John Adams (910 26th St.) and “Lunch Room under Flaherty’s Saloon,” located at the corner of 26th and I Streets (901 26th St.). For example, in October 1901 “quiet and inoffensive” York Nelson was accompanying his girlfriend Anne Green home from the Oyster Bar, when they were accosted by Charles Washington, “who was known as a fighter.” Nelson stabbed Washington to death with a penknife to the heart. Nelson argued that he acted self-defense and was acquitted after a two-day trial.

First Lady Eleonor Roosevelt visited Green’s Court: “Mrs. Roosevelt Acts Lady Christmas in Green’s Court – Sang Christmas carols at special services for alley dwellers.” (Evening Star, Dec. 24, 1940) She said: “Here is not so pleasant, but for another year we may hope for fewer alleys and better places to live in.”  (Washington Post, Dec. 25, 1940)

In the 1950s, Foggy Bottom, including Square 5, underwent redevelopment. Some Green’s Court houses were renovated and offered for sale as early as 1954. Eleonor Dulles, a State Department official and sister of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles (the airport is named after him), owned at least three such houses. New residents had moved in by 1958, including Navy veteran Harry and Betty Brown (and their poodle Maggie) who lived at 915 Green’s Court and then 25th Street. According to the Foggy Bottom News (May 1960), “They both considered Foggy Bottom the best place around, and a high accolade from Harry was “You’re Foggy Bottom people.” Although some of the Green’s Court houses had been renovated, all were demolished in the early 1960s for the construction of the Potomac Freeway. The FBA has proposed renaming the 26th Street Park, currently under renovation, as Green’s Court Park.

Sources: Special thanks to FBA Board Member Will Crane for his research and advocacy for Green’s Court Park as the new name for the 26th Street Park.  FBA Historic District House Map (including census and city directory data); Foggy Bottom News; Evening Star and Washington Post (D.C. Public Library); Baist Maps (Library of Congress); DC History Center; FBA History Project.