Featured Event
$ Dec. 4 at 8 a.m.- 6 p.m.
2009 Turning a New Leaf Conference
The Chesapeake Conservation Landscaping Council
Various campus locations
This conference is for professionals in the landscaping industry, government and education and focuses on sustainable landscaping techniques and business practices. Director of GW's Office of Sustainability Meghan Chapple-Brown will introduce the keynote speaker, former D.C mayor Anthony Williams. The conference is co-sponsored by GW's Landscape Design Program. For more information, please click here.
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GW's primary source of news and information, George Washington Today is produced by the Division of External Relations. Its primary staff includes:
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Foggy Bottom Facts
The neighborhood has been the home of a sitting president, the location of an underground railroad station, the baptism place of one of America’s most famous composers, and the site of one of the 20th century’s biggest political scandals.
• Foggy Bottom’s origin can be traced to 1765 when German immigrant Jacob Funk purchased a 30-acre tract of land and laid out the town of Hamburg.
• The Arts Club of Washington, 2017 Eye Street, is designated the Caldwell-Abbe House on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s one of the earliest houses in Foggy Bottom, with an original wing in back dating to 1802, and the main house dating to 1805. President James Monroe lived in the house during the first six months of his presidency while the White House was being restored after being burned by the British in 1814.
• One of the area’s oldest houses, 2500 Eye Street, dates back to the Civil War. Legend has it that it was associated with the underground railroad that aided escaped slaves fleeing to the North. The house is constructed of wood--unusual for Foggy Bottom, where residences are overwhelmingly brick.
• Lenthall Townhouses, 606-610 21st Street, date to 1800 when John Lenthall, a supervising architect of the United States Capitol, had them built. The pair was eventually moved from their original site on the 600 block of 19th Street in 1978 to make way for construction of a World Bank annex building. Today the townhouses are owned by GW and have been preserved as residences for visiting faculty.
• In 1856, Washington Gas Light Company’s first storage facility was built in Foggy Bottom. With its new gas streetlights, the District of Columbia needed a ready and plentiful supply of gas. Foggy Bottom became the power center for Washington‘s first streetlights.
• St. Mary’s Episcopal Church was built in 1886 at 728 23rd St., NW. In 1865, 28 African American men and women founded the first Episcopal Church for blacks in Washington. Originally named St. Mary’s Chapel for Colored People, the church was a place where African Americans could worship free from discrimination.
• In 1904, Columbian University, by an act of Congress, became The George Washington University. Through the urging of University President Charles H. Stockton, the Department of Arts and Sciences was moved in 1912 to 2023 G Street in Foggy Bottom, the area that George Washington himself selected as the site for “his” university.
• When GW moved to Foggy Bottom in 1912, breweries, coal yards, stables and a famous saloon highlighted the landscape of what was a primarily industrial, low-income neighborhood.
• Quigley’s Pharmacy at 619 21st Street, now Tonic restaurant, was operated by Dr. Richard Lucien Quigley and became a popular hangout for students at GW after the University relocated to Foggy Bottom in 1912. When Voice of America made a program on the 150th Anniversary of GW, they called it “The View from Quigley’s.”
• John Philip Sousa, legendary composer and band leader, was baptized in the Concordia Lutheran Evangelical Church at 1920 G Street, now the United Church.
• The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts opened September 8, 1971 on more than 18 acres formerly occupied by a brewery, a restaurant, and a riding stable.
• Room 723 in GW’s Hall on Virginia Avenue, 2601 Virginia Avenue, then a Howard Johnson’s, was used as a “lookout” by Watergate burglars.
• The Foggy Bottom Historic District, designated as a D.C. Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was established in 1987.
“Foggy Bottom Facts” was compiled by GW’s Gelman Library. Learn more with the GW and Foggy Bottom Historical Encyclopedia.
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