Connecting and Preserving Foggy Bottom and the West End

By Frank Leone The area that now includes the Kennedy Center once hosted two notable DC monuments – one honoring the men who perished on the Titanic and the other honoring three-time Democratic Presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan. Erected in the 1930s, these memorials were removed to make way for the Kennedy Center, Theodore Roosevelt Bridge, and Potomac River Freeway Construction in the 1960s. The Titanic Memorial stayed in D.C. but was moved down the Potomac River front to Southwest...

By Frank Leone On October 10, 2026, I happily joined a new kind of tour of the GWU/Foggy Bottom area - not just history, but an opportunity to make your own art. The GWU Museum sponsored the tour. Premier D.C. Tour Guide Carolyn Crouch of Washington Walks provided the history. Noted D.C. artist Carlos Carmonamedina of The Culture Curious guided participants as they sketched their own artworks. They were kind enough to let me share information about the FBA History Project. Check out the GWU...

Foggy Bottom’s Snow Court celebrated the Foggy Bottom Association’s “Octoberfest” in style in 1974. A good-sized crowd gathered in front of alley houses numbers 8, 9 and 10. Read more about this event and other news in the digital past issues of the Foggy Bottom News available here.

By Frank Leone How did Watergate get its name? “Watergate” could have referred to the nearby C&O Canal lock #1 and certainly related to the floating bandstand at the Lincoln Memorial steps (the water gate to the town). See Funkstown – Watergate. But Joe Rodota’s book indicates that the immediate source was the once-notable Pennsylvania Dutch style restaurant known as the Watergate Inn (1942-1966). The Inn was located at 2700 F Street, by the Rock Creek Parkway, now the site of the northwest...

About 25 people braved the threatened rain to participate in our sold out Sixth Annual WalkingTown DC Historic District walking tour. You can read more about the tour and our on-line resources here. This year we were joined by a reporter and photographer from The GWU Hatchet, who wrote a nice article, DC walking tour series showcases Foggy Bottom’s historic past (Sept. 28, 2026) as well as our wonderful FBA social media intern Jannatul Tapashi. WalkingTown volunteer Angel Ventling provided...

By Frank Leone The George Washington University grounds include a small park which contains a plaque dedicated to nine GWU alumni who died in the September 11 terrorist attacks. The plaque is centered in Anniversary Park (2138 F Street), which was created in 1997 in honor of GWU’s 175th Anniversary. The 9/11 plaque states: “The George Washington University honors the memory of those alumni lost in the tragedies of September 11, 2001 - Sara M. Clark (CCAS, MA '75) • Andrew K. Friedman (CCAS,...

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...

By Frank Leone Foggy Bottom is home to D.C.’s School Without Walls – a highly regarded humanities-based public magnet high school. The school (2130 G St. NW) was so named because it offers an alternative to conventional instructional programs in which students develop “methods of learning outside the traditional classroom” and “use the city as a classroom.” It is housed in the historic Ulysses S. Grant School, a three-story, red brick public school building constructed in 1882. The school is...

By Frank Leone The southwest corner of Foggy Bottom is occupied by the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, the Watergate complex, and the Saudi Arabian Embassy. Each of these buildings may be undergoing changes soon. The Kennedy Center (2700 F St.) is scheduled to close for a two-year “renovation.” The Saudi Arabian Embassy, once the Peoples Life Insurance building (601 New Hampshire Ave.), intends to renovate its façade to incorporate Saudi architectural principles. And...

By Frank Leone Before there was a Funkstown (1768), before the farms and plantations that preceded it, the area that is now Foggy Bottom and the District of Columbia was populated by Native Americans. We discussed the Anacostan and related tribes in a post a few years back: Funkstown – DC’s Native Americans in Foggy Bottom. That post included information Dr. Armand Lione shared in his blog and website that features an interactive map showing locations around DC where artifacts have been...