Trudging to See Babe Ruth – Meet the People at an I Street House

By Denise Vogt and Frank Leone

If the walls could talk, imagine the history we could share. Let’s start with what we have discovered. For example, in 1922, 2400 I Street resident Alan Phillips, age 20, was one of three enterprising FBWE boys who attempted to hike to New York City to see Babe Ruth in the World Series. They were arrested in Baltimore as runaways, but were released and told to return to Washington, so they did (see articles below). This is just one of the stories our summer interns unearthed. Here are more highlights about some of the residents of the 1886 rowhouse over the next 140 years. You can find more details on the House History Page for 2400 I Street. You’ll be impressed.

 Newspaper stories on the ill-fated attempted excursion to see Babe Ruth play in New York. They were so confident!

 The first entry documents an “entertainment” held by the ladies of the house in 1889 to raise money (a total of $5.50) for C&O Canal flood victims. Over the decades, residents of the house had a variety of occupations from stonecutter (1890), government messenger (1895), hotel steward (1900), foreman-contractor (1910), laborer (1920), taxicab driver (1927), Navy Steward’s Mate (1945) to IRS attorney and member of President Kennedy’s staff (1961). Over time, the residents reflected the racial make-up of Foggy Bottom – Irish American and White, then African American, and back to White.

The house seems to have hosted several people involved in accidents including a boy messenger on a bicycle run down by a carriage (1897), a boy on bicycle hit by automobile (1914), and a man thrown from motorcycle when hit by a car (1918). Chester Wallace was unhurt in an accident where his car collided with a streetcar in 1920; unfortunately, he was killed in 1927, when his roadster was run off the road near Fredericksburg. We hope residents’ luck getting from here to there improved after 1930.

The front facade of 2400 I Street in the Foggy Bottom Historic District, a typical modest brick, two bay wide, and two and half story high rowhouse. It was part of a group of 16 adjoining rowhouses built by J.H. Grant for developer Samuel Norment in 1886 (D. Vogt, 2022).

The house history page documents life events including marriages and the unfortunate death of baby Claude C. Burwick at six months in 1911, one of many stories of infant mortality in Foggy Bottom (although residents of other houses lived to be 100).

Sometimes the information found raises additional questions. In 1920, resident Emil Tamagin, manager of the Emerald Athletic Club, posted in the Evening Star that it “wants matches with 110-pound elevens.” Further research showed that the Club, composed primarily of Irish Americans, fielded amateur baseball and football teams. Here they are looking for opponents for football games. There is always more to learn!