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.

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.

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

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 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.