Hamburgh Village House

Image from the Library of Congress.

Hamburgh Village was planned in 1768 by Jacob Funk, a German colonist who moved there from Frederick Maryland. It was created to be a suburb of Georgetown. The community was bounded by H Street, 19th Street, the Potomac River, and 23rd Street — roughly today’s Foggy Bottom.

The house at 412 20th Street, NW, was constructed ca. 1780. It was the only known 18th century building of its type in the District and was still largely intact in 1934 when the National Park Service prepared drawings of the structure. In 1935 it was razed, destroying the last remaining original building from Hamburgh Village. Today, the site of the home is public space south of the southwest corner of 20th and E Streets, NW.

Hamburgh Village House drawings

Kent Boese posts items of historic interest, primarily within the District. He’s worked in libraries since 1994, both federal and law, and currently works on K Street. He’s been an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner serving the northern Columbia Heights and Park View neighborhoods since 2011 (ANC 1A), and served as the Commission’s Chair since 2013. He has a MS in Design from Arizona State University with strong interests in preservation, planning, and zoning. Kent is also the force behind the blog Park View, DC.