Wheat Row
Metro Stop: Waterfront
- Green Line
Wheat Row (Source: Library of Congress)
If L’Enfant Plaza is the epitome of the 1950 urban renewal project, Wheat Row is a symbol of the opposition. Constructed in 1794, Wheat Row is a series of four houses named after Senate messenger John Wheat. They are D.C.’s oldest standing group of row houses, a feat that the government tried unsuccessfully to squash. Wheat Row was very much in the area that the government wanted to “renew” in 1950, but in the end the houses survived. Fun fact: it is rumored that Thomas Jefferson once dined at one of the houses.