On January 30, 2020, the Barry Farm Tenants and Allies Association (BFTAA) and community group, Empower DC, achieved a significant victory—the historic landmark designation of a portion of the Barry Farm Dwellings by the District of Columbia Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB).  Their efforts are the culmination of years of struggle to ensure that the history of Barry Farm is not erased.  The Washington Lawyers’ Committee was privileged to support our clients in this effort and bear witness to this landmark achievement.

Barry Farm has a rich history that dates back to 1867 when the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands established the area as a post-Civil War community for formerly enslaved persons. Barry Farm became the first community in the District for African-American homeowners, and by 1890, the original settlement had become one of the most vibrant black communities in the city. The sons of abolitionist Frederick Douglass even called Barry Farm home.

In 1942-43, the federal government decided to turn Barry Farm into a more limited 442-unit public housing complex, which significantly decreased the size of the community and altered its purpose.  Even so, the residents of Barry Farm continued to play a significant role in the District and the nation.  Adrienne and Barbara Jennings, residents of Barry Farm, served as plaintiffs in the 1954 Bolling v. Sharpe de-segregation of District of Columbia public schools case.  In the 1960s, Etta Mae Horn and Lillian Wright organized the Band of Angels, a tenant’s council that emerged from President Johnson’s War on Poverty program, and secured a significant renovation of Barry Farm.  Ms. Horn also went on to help found the National Welfare Rights Organization.

Barry Farm further distinguished itself through its design.  The design of the property was innovative and intentional by allowing for large outdoor community areas, the inclusion of spacious town homes, and the strategic and minimal use of cross streets, all intended to avoid blight, help families remain physically and emotionally healthy, and encourage socialization between neighbors.  In sum, the history of Barry Farm is long and rich.  The D.C. Inventory of Historic Sites will include 32 units of Barry Farm and their landscape as a historic landmark.  This is a start, but not enough and much less than what the BFTAA and Empower DC asked the HPRB to preserve.  To read more about this issue, see the Op-Ed of Sarah Shoenfeld, historian and author of the Barry Farm historic landmark application, available here.