Watergate South

Foggy Bottom stretches from just west of the White House to the Potomac River, south of Pennsylvania Avenue and the West End and north of the National Mall. It is home to George Washington University, the State Department, and the Kennedy Center, and its residential blocks sit tucked among these institutions near the river.

Most homes are in mid-century apartment buildings, and a large share are cooperatives. Potomac Plaza (1956) at 2475 Virginia Avenue, the Watergate complex completed in the late 1960s and early 1970s — including Watergate South (1971) at 700 New Hampshire Avenue — and a series of 1950s–1970s buildings along Virginia Avenue and 24th through 26th Streets hold most of the market. The Foggy Bottom Historic District, designated in 1987, preserves small two- and three-story brick rowhouses built between about 1870 and 1911 on streets such as 24th, 25th, and 26th, and G, H, and I Streets.

Daily life is compact and walkable. A Whole Foods and restaurants cluster near the GWU campus on I Street, a farmers market has run on I Street on Wednesdays since 2005, and the Kennedy Center offers performances year-round. The Potomac waterfront, Thompson Boat Center, and Rock Creek trail are at the western edge.

Foggy Bottom–GWU station on the Orange, Blue, and Silver Lines is on 23rd Street, and Georgetown, the West End, and downtown are all within walking distance.

I enjoy showing Foggy Bottom because it offers co-op and condo values close to the Mall and the river, plus some of the city’s most charming small rowhouses.