Located along the western bank of the Potomac River, Foggy Bottom is one of Washington’s most historic neighborhoods. Like Georgetown nearby, it was originally founded as its own town centuries ago. In 1763, a German immigrant named Joseph Funk specifically created the village, which he settled at the confluence of the riverfront and Rock Creek. While he called the community “Hamburg," residents in the area nonetheless referred to it informally as “Funkstown.” Given the town’s proximity to the Potomac, Funk had hoped it would become a prominent local port. Nevertheless, Hamburg was forced to compete against Georgetown’s already booming shipping industry. As such, Funk’s settlement remained fairly smally for many years thereafter. Absorbed into the newly formed District of Columbia in the 1790s, the community’s economic fortunes gradually changed for the better over the next several decades. At first, the maritime traffic driven by the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal helped jumpstart this growth. But the mass migration of European immigrants into the locale during the 1850s sparked widescale industrialization. The immigrants established numerous shops that manufactured all kinds of goods. Central European breweries in particular were very ubiquitous, the most notable of which was the “Christian Heurich Brew Company.” Opened by German native Christian Heurich, the business eventually blossomed into a massive industrial complex called the “Olde Heurich Brewing Company.” It made the Heurich family incredibly wealthy, with Christian Heurich even becoming one of the largest landowners in Washington for a time. Another major business to debut in the area was the Washington Gas Light Company, which generated power for the entire district. Largely staffed by the local Irish population, the company’s plant was one of the most recognizable features in Washington’s developing skyline.

Soon enough, the area was soon filled with dozens of towering factories. Indeed, the industrial activity was so great that a thick layer of smoke gradually blanketed the area, inspiring some locals to refer to it as “Foggy Bottom”—at least according to oral tradition. Regardless of its origins, the name “Foggy Bottom” became synonymous with the neighborhood by the height of the Gilded Age. The presence of so many factories continued to attract additional workers from across the world, too, including many black laborers from the American South. Foggy Bottom thus developed a strong African American community that formed its own rich culture and identity. Unfortunately for the residents of Foggy Bottom, the neighborhood’s prosperity was not destined to last forever. The ultimate demise of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in the 1920s spelled doom for the many businesses inside Foggy Bottom, which relied on its merchants to ship products. The factories subsequently shutdown and relocated to other places in the city that were closer to other forms of transportation. (Prohibition also shutdown many of the breweries, too.) Foggy Bottom’s teeming population left the area, too, reducing the neighborhood to a shadow of its former self. But several events occurred after World War II that saw Foggy Bottom resume being among Washington’s most prominent regions. The U.S. State Department made the decision to relocate its headquarters in the area, which was then followed by a wave of commercial redevelopment projects that lasted through the 1960s. Foggy Bottom subsequently reemerged as one of the city’s most luxurious places to live and to visit. The neighborhood has since maintained this status, attracting thousands of interested tourists each year. It is even home to many fascinating cultural attractions, including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the historic campus of George Washington University.

Originally developed as an upscale private residence, the Hotel Lombardy displays a wonderful blend of architectural motifs inspired by the famous Beaux-Arts movement. Popularized around the dawn of the 20th century, this beautiful architectural form originally began at an art school in Paris known as the “École des Beaux-Arts” during the 1830s. There was much resistance to the Neoclassism of the day among French artists, who yearned for the intellectual freedom to pursue less rigid design aesthetics. Four instructors in particular were responsible for establishing the movement: Joseph-Louis Duc, Félix Duban, Henri Labrouste, and Léon Vaudoyer. The training that these instructors created involved fusing architectural elements from several earlier styles, including Imperial Roman, Italian Renaissance, ad Baroque. As such, a typical building created with Beaux-Arts-inspired designs would feature a rusticated first story, followed by several more simplistic ones. A flat roof would then top the structure. Symmetry became the defining character, with every building’s layout featuring such elements as balustrades, pilasters, and cartouches. Sculptures and other carvings were commonplace throughout the design, too. Beaux-Arts only found a receptive audience in France and the United States though, as most other Western architects at the time gravitated toward British design principles.