Barry Farm

A Community of Freedmen, Workers, and Activists

Barry Farm Dwellings circa 1944

Barry Farm- The Beginning

Barry Farm has gone by many names, for some it is spelled Barry’s Farm or Barry Farms, and historically it has also been known as Potomac City, Hillsboro, and Hillsdale and Barry Farm Dwellings. Barry Farm and its various identities can be traced from being a set of land plots intended for freedmen to public housing for an ever-expanding labor community in Washington D.C.. The community of Barry Farm has persisted with its existence, often advocating for themselves through the many eras of American history, most notably during the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, World War II labor migrations, and the Civil Rights era. 

Photo Source: Gottscho-Schleisner, Inc. Barry Farms Housing Development, Washington, D.C. Administration Building. April 28, 1944. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/gsc.5a19185.

map of greater DC area
map of greater DC area

Map of East of the Anacostia featuring Barry Farm, also called Potomac City, 1874. Image Courtesy of Library of Congress.

Reconstruction to the early 20th Century

The location of Barry Farm has grown increasingly smaller throughout its history, once spanning over 375 acres and it is now just three lots of public housing soon to be demolished. Barry Farm was procured by the Freedman Bureau through General Oliver Otis Howard and his intermediary, John R. Elvans. Howard used Elvans to buy the land from James Barry’s heirs, Julianna and David Barry, in 1867. The land was contained within Uniontown, what would later become Anacostia in 1886, a majority white area. The white community that lived there did not want a free Black community of land owners to live there, yet the purchase ensured that freedmen would move in to land plots within the year. Reverend William Hunter, established Macedonia Baptist Church, Mrs. Eliza Spottswood Shippen, the first black woman to own land in Barry Farms, Elzie Hoffman, head of the Hillsdale Civic Association, and Emily Edmonson, the famous slave who attempted to escape the Pearl in 1848 and landed in Barry Farm after the war, were all residents of this historic community.

Source: Hutchinson, Louise Daniel. The Anacostia Story, 1608-1930. Washington: Published for the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum of the Smithsonian Institution by the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1977.

Image courtesy of Library of Congress.

James Barry, 1874
James Barry, 1874

Constructing the Community

The Activists

Frederick Douglass and Solomon G. Brown were both massive activists in the Barry Farm community and wrote extensively about Barry Farm’s rural beginnings to the beginnings of a cosmopolitan and enduring community. They became facets of the local community and often encouraged the growth of the community and advocated for it.

Solomon Brown would live and die in the area that would be known as Anacostia, and Douglass' writings and advocacy shaped much of what Anacostia would become in the 20th century. They both influenced a generation of activists within the community, many of whom were Black women like Elzie Hoffman, a founder and activists within the Hillsdale Civic Association.

Source: Byck, Daniella, Cartagena, Rosa, Flaherty, Fiona, Godfrey, Sarah, Montgomery, Mimi, Rundlett, Madeline, Peischel, Will, and Williams, Elliot. “‘TEN STRONG: WOMEN OF BARRY FARM/HILLSDALE.’” Washingtonian 54, no. 11 (August 1, 2019). http://search.proquest.com/docview/2268680802/.

Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt). The Negro American Family. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969.

Schools

Construction of Mt. Zion Hill School, renamed Howard School began in December 1867 and was located on Douglass Road for children in the community. The largest community public school, Hillsdale, opened in 1871 and was located at the intersection of Nichols and Sheridan Ave (now MLK Jr. Avenue and Sheridan). The school also had night classes for adults who learned to read and write. The school was built by carpenter, Peter Wilkinson, who was also an involved resident in the community. James G. Birney School also opened in 1889 and later became a community center and DC Public Library branch.

Source: Hutchinson, Louise Daniel. The Anacostia Story, 1608-1930. Washington: Published for the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum of the Smithsonian Institution by the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1977.

Image Courtesy of Anacostia Community Museum.

letter between contractors and land owners regarding materials and purchases for Barry Farm

Barry Farm Becomes Hillsdale

In 1874 Barry Farm was renamed Hillsdale through a resolution introduced by Solomon G. Brown and passed by city officials. The name change was part of a larger movement to give Barry Farm a new start, and led to increased civic participation such as the establishment of the Hillsdale Civic Association. This association fought for better public services, with the help of Solomon Brown and Elzie Hoffman. The community during this era was often thought of as a group of well-to do Black people and it was also acknowledged that their community benefitted from a decreased death rate in the early 20th century compared to the early Reconstruction years.

Source: Lowe, Gail Sylvia. East of the River: Continuity and Change. Washington, DC: Smithsonian, Anacostia Community Museum, 2010.

Image Courtesy of Anacostia Community Museum

church in Barry Farm, 1940

Churches

Many churches were built and opened in this era, namely, Mt Zion AME (renamed Campbell AME), Hillsdale Station Colored Methodist Episcopal Church (renamed St. John CME) in the 1880s. Churches remained a special place in Barry Farm in which residents could congregate and socialize as well as throw picnics and community events.

Source: Lowe, Gail Sylvia. East of the River: Continuity and Change. Washington, DC: Smithsonian, Anacostia Community Museum, 2010.

Image Courtesy of "East of the River" by The Anacostia Community Museum

Church gathering at St. John CME
View of Anacostia River from Anacostia, east.
View of Anacostia River from Anacostia, east.

The Navy Yard Bridge leading to Anacostia and Barry Farm, 1860s, Courtesy of the Anacostia Community Museum.

Barry Farm map

Barry Farm land plots and divisions, Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Barry Farm - Google My Maps

Community Gathering-- Parks in the 19th and 20th century

During this era, Eureka Park became a hub for gatherings and political rallies and offered many amenities to the surrounding Black community. It opened around 1890, on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. This park was subject to surveillance by police and there were unfair and exaggerated reports that it was unsafe, demonstrating that racial tensions that did not fade from the early Reconstruction era. Similarly, Green Willow Park was another “colored resort park” in Hillsdale in 1905. It was closed in 1919 when resentment towards black veterans reached a peak and there was increased violence in the community.

Source: Fletcher, Patsy Mose. Historically African American Leisure Destinations Around Washington, D.C. . Charleston, S.C: History Press, 2015.

World War II: The Need for Labor

This era brought a whole new population to Barry Farm, laborers for the war effort. War housing projects were set up across the city, but most notable was the Barry Farm development. Military bases like Camp Springs, Bolling Air Force Base, and federal bases broke up Barry Farm and in 1948 the Suitland Parkway was built to let traffic flow through to the Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. This broke the community in half, and marks a sharp turning point in the community’s once thriving atmosphere as the federal government and city planners trampled on the delicate balance that was set up in Reconstruction era and the early 20th century. 

Source: Lowe, Gail Sylvia. East of the River: Continuity and Change. Washington, DC: Smithsonian, Anacostia Community Museum, 2010.

Barry Farm Dwellings: Public Housing of the 1950s-1990s

The late 50s and early 60s saw a sharp uptick in public housing, this changed the neighborhood and resulted in the frustration of many residents who felt they did not have adequate access to infrastructure and welfare. Southeast Housing Organizers formed a tenant’s group called the Barry Farm Band of Angels in response to the National Capital Housing Authority’s 1966 plans to refurbish Barry Farm public housing. Their advocacy worked and the Housing Authority tripled the amount of money they spent on Barry Farm. Etta Mae Horn led the charge of challenging city officials. The Southeast Neighborhood House and United Planning Organization also helped residents protest directed at city officials.

Barry Farm residents like Dorothea Farrell of the Barry Farm Residential Association were focused on cleaning up Barry Farm from the pollution from Navy Yard in the 80s and 90s. This era focused on activism and welfare for the community. By this time Barry Farm was known as a low income public housing dwelling in the predominantly Black community of Anacostia. 

Source: Ture, Kalfani Nyerere., and Williams, Brett. “Fighting for the Farms : Structural Violence, Race and Resistance in Washington, D.C. .” American University, 2017.

Image courtesy of Library of Congress.

Barry Farm Dwellings- Children standing in front of public housing

Public Dwellings

Barry Farm became Barry Farm Public Dwellings in the 1960s, and as indicated on the map, was built on top of the previously existing land plots that had been purchased by General Howard and the Freedmen's Bureau a century before.

Residents complained about the dilapidated conditions of the housing units and their already frail infrastructure. Residential associations and individual residents often wrote to the D.C. Housing Authority and even testified before Senate Housing Committees to try and improve their quality of living and have the federal government recognize the importance of up-keeping public housing for predominantly Black communities with large wealth disparities.

Source: Asch, Chris Myers, and Musgrove, George Derek. Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2017.

map of old Barry Farm from Freedmen era superimposed onto Barry Farm Dwellings Public Housing

A Community in Recovery

Pictured to the left is Jasper Burnette, the acting manager of Barry Farm Dwellings in 1981. He was interviewed by The Washington Post about his duties and the hardships of managing and living in Barry Farm public housing which was rundown and crowded, with 3,000 people living 444 two story housing units. He described the hardships of making sure that tenants had running appliances, access to safety mechanisms, and were living in tolerable conditions given the fact that the public housing budget could barely cover upkeep of the dwellings let alone total renovations which it desperately needed.

At the time, Mayor Marion Barry had proposed Barry Farm receive over $14.4 million in Federal capital improvement funds, which were never distributed, much to the anger of residents. Residents complained about a variety of issues, including dilapidated roofs, overcrowding, broken appliances, and dangerous events in the community which made Barry Farm appear unsafe and cultivated an atmosphere of discontent.

It was at this time that Barry Farm and the general Anacostia area became known not only as a wholly Black community, but as a Black community struggling within the larger gentrified and socioeconomically more affluent white community of Washington D.C..

Source: Sargent, Edward. June 25, 1981. "Running Barry Farms." The Washington Post. 

Image Courtesy of The Washington Post

Picture of Jasper Burnette, project manager of Barry Farm

Public Housing

In 1942 D.C. Housing Authority named Barry Farm Dwellings an official Defense Program public housing element. This program continued until 2001 when the D.C. Housing Authority and Zoning Commission began to introduce new rehabilitation legislation to change Barry Farm Dwellings into better public housing. Better infrastructure and resources were often among the chief complaints of residents, and was later never addressed in subsequent housing committee hearings in the Senate. The government later opted to demolish 200 units in 2017 and plans to demolish the rest with the assistance of a private land developing company in 2020.

Source: Ture, Kalfani Nyerere., and Williams, Brett. “Fighting for the Farms : Structural Violence, Race and Resistance in Washington, D.C. .” American University, 2017.

Image Courtesy of Anacostia Community Museum

A Community Changed

The building of Barry Farm Public Dwellings in 1942 changed the image of Barry Farm and is a sharp distinction between Barry Farm as it was lived on my Freedmen in the Reconstruction era to the 20th and 21st century public housing it later became. Public housing was markedly more cramped and haphazard than the former lodges that had existed and were built by Freedmen. The average reconstruction era lot was $10 monthly or $225.00 to purchase. Residents policed and surveyed themselves within the community until the 20th century when the laborers for the war moved into Barry Farm, marking a turn away from Freedmen's quarters.

Source: Anderson, Elizabeth W. Historical Archaeological Reconnaissance and Assessment, Barry’s Farm, Washington, D.C. . Wilmington, Del: Wilmington Culture Resources Branch Earth Systems Division, Soil Systems, 1981.

Image Courtesy of "Concrete Builder Monthly".

Ramifications of Federal Interferance

The movement of the war effort meant that Barry Farm, still a working class community, would become even more inundated with workers and tension as public housing became a priority for the federal government. Another priority was access to roads and army bases, this was best exemplified by the construction of Suitland Parkway which cut the community in half and is often cited as one of the main factors in Barry Farms' perception as a delinquent community or community incapable of unity. The construction, mixed with an already tumultuous relationship with the federal government led to many residents being pushed out of the community, a theme which has persisted in the history of public housing in Washington D.C.

Image courtesy of Anacostia Community Museum.

The 21st Century: The Fight Continues...

Barry Farm remains under threat of ‘new urban renewal’ which began in the early 2000s and again in 2017. The New Communities Initiative developed in the early 2000s sought to demolish public housing, including Barry Farm. This threatened over 300 families and in 2019, half of the dwellings were demolished with the promise that Barry Farm dwellings residents would be able to return or would find new housing. A second stage of demolition is planned for later this year, but D.C. area protestors and former Barry Farm residents are currently protesting. 

Source: Baskin, Morgan. July 20, 2018. "Fights of the Round Table: A Public Meeting over the Future of Barry Farm highlighted years-long community concerns, but offered few specific remedies." Washington City Paper. 

Yi, Joy Sharon. “Barry Farm.” Bachelor of Fine Arts Thesis, Chapman University, May 2011.  file:///Users/jocelynortiz/Downloads/Barry_Farm%20(1).pdf 

Activists in the 21st Century

Empower D.C. and other local Barry Farm Activist groups like the BFTAA or Barry Farm Tenants and Allies Association, remain at the center of the fight against gentrification in Anacostia and the District of Columbia as a whole.

As of October 31st, after a meeting with the D.C. Housing Authority and the D.C. Committee for Historical Site Preservation and Designation have halted plans to demolish the rest of the units.

These activists have pushed against the land developers' plans to demolish the vacant housing and advocated that the developers as well as the Housing Authority come up with a solution to honor and preserve the legacy of Barry Farm while also honoring the promise the Federal Government made to residents that they could return to Barry Farm once construction was completed almost 15 years ago.

Source: Banister, John. 2018. BISNOW, Appeals Court Blocks 1,400-Unit Barry Farm Project in Southeast D.C. April 26. Accessed November 20, 2019. https://www.bisnow.com/washington-dc/news/multifamily/court-blocks-1400-unit-barry-farm-project-in-southeast-dc-87798.

Questions Left Unanswered

The fate of Barry Farm remains unclear. The New Communities Initiative which sparked the debate over Barry Farms history, gentrification, and relocation or demolition, remains controversial.

The Federal Government in partnership with A&R Development, private developers, wish to create over 1,000 housing units on the lots of Barry Farm, only 300 of which would be designated as affordable housing.

Residents seek to force the DC Housing Authority and Zoning Commission to make Barry Farm a Historical Landmark as well as a protected space in which not all of the public dwellings can be destroyed.

So far, there has been no movement on the land by the private land developers, and only more activism and protest can be done in the mean time to ensure that Barry Farm Public Housing and the greater legacy of Barry Farm as a historically black and rich community are preserved.

Gentrification remains a key part of this debate, and activists often site that historically, this community has been a neighborhood for working class and tight knit Black landowners in Washington, and therefore the government should do its best to ensure that Black residents are given access to housing and resources when Barry Farm housing is again built in the coming years.

Source: Ackerman, Andrew. “D.C. Eyes Anacostia River Revival: Reviews Plans to Aid Blighted Area.” The Bond Buyer 358, no. 32520 (December 4, 2006): 1.

Banister, John. 2018. BISNOW, Appeals Court Blocks 1,400-Unit Barry Farm Project in Southeast D.C. April 26. Accessed November 20, 2019. https://www.bisnow.com/washington-dc/news/multifamily/court-blocks-1400-unit-barry-farm-project-in-southeast-dc-87798.

Image Courtesy of Washington City Paper.

"Justice for Barry Farms, Stand with BFTAA and Empower DC"

What can Barry Farm tell us about the history of Washington D.C.?

Barry Farm has been a resilient community that nurtured the growth of the Black community through the Freedman's Bureau use of the land for emancipated Blacks in the post-Civil War era to the current push against gentrification and demolition of historical memory in a majority Black area. Barry Farm and its residents have shaped the history of Washington D.C. based advocacy, education, religion, and community and remain a reminder of the adverse effects gentrification and federal over reach can have on communities of color.

The community’s constant interaction and relationship with the federal government and its components like the Housing Authority and military bases have also had a resounding historical impact on the community and its perceptions. Activism has been at the center of the community because of these interactions with the government, residents were forced to advocate for themselves and challenge city and welfare officials to improve living conditions throughout the Reconstruction era and until now.

Barry Farm residents also promoted education for their community through building over 6 schools within the demarcations of Barry Farm within the span of 20 years of Barry Farm's opening to freedmen. General Howard’s trustee funds also formed over $23,000 dollars of profits from Barry Farm land plot sales which was then made available for the education of freedmen at Howard University in D.C. and two other schools in Richmond and North Carolina. The variety of churches and schools brought the community together, and gathering places like parks and community centers promoted the themes of unity and commonality among Barry Farm residents, resulting in a very well-adjusted Black population sandwiched between the two white populations of Congress Heights and Uniontown (now Anacostia).

Now, the community fights to stay connected and is currently battling D.C. Housing Developers and D.C. Housing Authority as the D.C. Historic Preservation Review Board limbos on taking concrete action on declaring Barry Farm's remaining 32 buildings a historical site. Former Barry Farm residents and activists like Empower DC and BFTAA continue the long tradition of advocacy and activism against a system that has long ignored their voices and the formative impact Barry Farm has had on the Black community of D.C.

Source: Baskin, Morgan. July 20, 2018. "Fights of the Round Table: A Public Meeting over the Future of Barry Farm highlighted years-long community concerns, but offered few specific remedies." Washington City Paper. 

Community Coordinating Committee of Anacostia group picture

Activism, A Legacy: The Community Coordinating Committee of Anacostia, 1960. Image Courtesy of Anacostia Community Museum.

About the Author: Jocelyn Ortiz

Jocelyn is a fourth year History major at Georgetown University, with hopes of pursuing a law degree in the next few years. Jocelyn is interested in the intersections of historical memory and commemoration with human rights and justice. During this project Jocelyn has become close to anti-gentrification D.C. area activists and has become more interested in D.C. area housing justice.

Bibliography

Ackerman, Andrew. “D.C. Eyes Anacostia River Revival: Reviews Plans to Aid Blighted Area.” The Bond Buyer 358, no. 32520 (December 4, 2006): 1.

 Anderson, Elizabeth W. Historical Archaeological Reconnaissance and Assessment, Barry’s Farm, Washington, D.C. . Wilmington, Del: Wilmington Culture Resources Branch Earth Systems Division, Soil Systems, 1981.

Asch, Chris Myers, and Musgrove, George Derek. Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2017.

Banister, John. 2018. BISNOW, Appeals Court Blocks 1,400-Unit Barry Farm Project in Southeast D.C. April 26. Accessed November 20, 2019. https://www.bisnow.com/washington-dc/news/multifamily/court-blocks-1400-unit-barry-farm-project-in-southeast-dc-87798.

Baskin, Morgan. July 20, 2018. "Fights of the Round Table: A Public Meeting over the Future of Barry Farm highlighted years-long community concerns, but offered few specific remedies." Washington City Paper. 

 Byck, Daniella, Cartagena, Rosa, Flaherty, Fiona, Godfrey, Sarah, Montgomery, Mimi, Rundlett, Madeline, Peischel, Will, and Williams, Elliot. “‘TEN STRONG: WOMEN OF BARRY FARM/HILLSDALE.’” Washingtonian 54, no. 11 (August 1, 2019). http://search.proquest.com/docview/2268680802/.

Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt). The Negro American Family. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969.

Fletcher, Patsy Mose. Historically African American Leisure Destinations Around Washington, D.C. . Charleston, S.C: History Press, 2015.

Gottscho-Schleisner, Inc. Barry Farms Housing Development, Washington, D.C. Administration Building. April 28, 1944. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/gsc.5a19185.

Hutchinson, Louise Daniel. The Anacostia Story, 1608-1930. Washington: Published for the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum of the Smithsonian Institution by the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1977.

Lowe, Gail Sylvia. East of the River: Continuity and Change. Washington, DC: Smithsonian, Anacostia Community Museum, 2010.

Sargent, Edward. June 25, 1981. "Running Barry Farms." The Washington Post. 

Smith, Kathryn Schneider. Washington at Home: an Illustrated History of Neighborhoods in the Nation’s Capital . 2nd ed. Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010.

Ture, Kalfani Nyerere., and Williams, Brett. “Fighting for the Farms : Structural Violence, Race and Resistance in Washington, D.C. .” American University, 2017.

The Black Washingtonians: the Anacostia Museum Illustrated Chronology.  Hoboken, N.J: J. Wiley, 2005.

Wennersten, John R. Anacostia: the Death & Life of an American River.  Baltimore, Md: Chesapeake Book Co., 2008.

Williams, A. A. . Neighborhood Databook : Sheridan, Barry Farm, Hillsdale, Fort Stanton (Cluster 37) . Washington, D.C: The Office, 2001.

Yi, Joy Sharon. “Barry Farm.” Bachelor of Fine Arts Thesis, Chapman University, May 2011.  file:///Users/jocelynortiz/Downloads/Barry_Farm%20(1).pdf 

 Young, Hattie F. A Study of the Recreational Needs of the Negro Adults of the Barry Farms, Garfield-Douglass and Camp Simms Areas of Southwest Washington and a Proposed Program. Washington, D.C: Howard University, 1948.

Map of East of the Anacostia featuring Barry Farm, also called Potomac City, 1874. Image Courtesy of Library of Congress.

The Navy Yard Bridge leading to Anacostia and Barry Farm, 1860s, Courtesy of the Anacostia Community Museum.

Barry Farm land plots and divisions, Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Activism, A Legacy: The Community Coordinating Committee of Anacostia, 1960. Image Courtesy of Anacostia Community Museum.