From the statue of our country’s first president at Washington Circle to Quigley’s Pharmacy at the corner of 21st and G Streets, to the neighborhood’s 19th-century row houses, to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Watergate Complex, Foggy Bottom has its share of landmarks, old and new. Among these remarkable structures The George Washington University and the Foggy Bottom community share common ground.

The 1912 arrival of The George Washington University in Foggy Bottom, humbly situated in a leased girls’ school no longer in use at 2023 G Street, marked the beginning of the University’s history in a locale that would provide a home to multitudes of students over the next nine decades. Many of them breaking into the world for the first time, they sought an education and a place to call home—and they found it in Foggy Bottom.

At the time of GW’s move to Foggy Bottom, the Heurich Brewery, the Abner-Drury Brewery, the Washington Gas Light Company, two coal yards, some stables, and a famous saloon highlighted the landscape of what was then a primarily industrial, low-income neighborhood. Stretching from N Street, N.W., down to E Street and from 19th Street to the Potomac River, Foggy Bottom has evolved and is today known for its firm entrenchment in education, politics, society, and the arts. It gives residence to a wealth of opportunities for the neighborhoods, businesses, and the University alike. Foggy Bottom has retained its charm over the years while many of the District’s surrounding areas have become concrete canyons. As a part of the community, GW has striven to create a beautiful area where people can comfortably enjoy living, studying, working, and playing.