2000 Block Of Eye Street, NW

About this property

2000 Pennsylvania Avenue (now Western Market), formerly known as The Shops at 2000 Penn and Red Lion Row, is a shopping center and eight-story office complex located on Pennsylvania Avenue, NW in Washington, D.C. It forms a busy gateway into the main campus of the George Washington University, which owns the property. As the 2000 Block of Eye Street, NW, the houses were named a DC Landmark and added to the National Register of Historic Places, both in 1977. The original buildings on the site were thirteen row houses constructed between 1831 and 1896. The homes were located on a block bordered by H, I, 20th, and 21st Streets, NW. The houses were mostly initially owned by merchants, who kept small shops inside. The block originally faced Western Market, founded in 1803; the site of the market is a park today. The largest unit in the block was a corner structure, at 832 20th St. and 2004 I St. Three stories tall, it was constructed with a flat roof and metal cornice; imitation stone covered the facade. The building began life as a pair of independent shops, owned separately, before later being combined. The earliest Washington city directory, published in 1822, lists a grocery store owned by Christian and Matthew Hines on the corner. Grocers have continued to occupy the site into the twentieth century. The corner store was sold in 1837 to Samuel Stott, whose family owned it for decades thereafter. The current building, believed to be his work, was known by the middle of the century as "Stott's Hall". Its third floor was a public hall. Though the exact date of its construction is uncertain, in 1869 the assessed value of 832 20th St. rocketed from $2500 to $6000, indicating a major remodeling; it is believed that the current building was built at an earlier date and remodeled around that year. The construction date of 2004 I St. is unknown, but it is believed that the house was built at around the same time as its neighbor. This structure was owned by Owen Murray, a grocer, in 1869; he sold it to Stott in 1876. Other occupants of the property included Francis Jarboe, George Fillebrown, and William Brown, the latter running a grocery store on the site beginning in 1872 and continuing past the turn of the century. 2006 I St. was constructed in the Greek Revival style around 1846, and has been remodeled several times since then. It is distinguished by its cornice, deep and with wooden dentil blocks. The original owners of the house were the Murray family, who were probably its builders as well. Owen Murray operated his grocery elsewhere on the block between 1843 and 1853; later, at 2006, one Patrick Murray is listed in 1863 as owning a restaurant in the space. Beginning in 1869 John Leamy appears in the city directory as a restaurateur in the same place, continuing until 1871; in 1876 John Ohl is listed as proprietor of a restaurant and saloon. He purchased the building from the Murrays; he continued to own it past 1888, when its occupant, John Werner, kept a saloon on the site. The building has continued to serve in various commercial capacities, including again as a restaurant recently.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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