When I recently wrote about the Wheeler Ferry, I came across a few mentions of the ‘Lower Ferry.’ This led me to look into this, and I find out more about a part of Capitol Hill that was important in its early days – and completely gone for over 200 years now – Barry’s Wharf. One of the first businesses to open on Capitol Hill was James Barry’s wharf, at the end of New Jersey Avenue SE. Barry, who moved from Baltimore around 1795, saw an opportunity to ship goods from there around the world; at the time, the Anacostia seemed a better bet for a port than even Georgetown, given its deeper channels. Furthermore, it seemed that this would be the best place to bring in goods for those at the new Capitol building, which was under construction just up the hill from there. According to a 1959 article in the Records of the Columbia Historical Society, an Adam Lindsey began operating a ferry from there in 1796. They add that it “was not operated many years.” What Lindsey did before or after, or even how long ‘not … many years’ might be is unclear. Barry’s wharf continued to operate, and in April 1797, the first major ship left the dock: The Maryland, loaded with 400 tons of wheat and bread, sailed for Havana. It was at the same time that William Cranch, who was working as the legal agent for a Washington real estate firm and was, not coincidentally, the nephew of President John Adams, wrote to his uncle, stating that there was “a large wooden store” and a “bake house with 4 ovens there.” He continued: “[T]he natural Advantages of the Eastern branch, lead me to conclude that the eastern side of the City will be the first settled, and [that] Barry’s wharff will [be] the Center from which the natural growth of the City will extend”
The area around Barry’s Wharf is shown in this detail of an 1833 painting by George Cooke (LOC)
Cranch was quite wrong in his assessment and, indeed, as so many others who speculated in land in the new capital, was bankrupt a few years later. In contrast to the others, not fortuitously related to the President, Cranch soon found himself on his feet again, appointed by Adams first to the post of Inspector of Public Buildings in 1800, then the next year to be a judge on the DC Circuit court. Meanwhile, the wharf was not doing well. Albert Gallatin, who had been selected to be Secretary of the Treasury by Thomas Jefferson, wrote to his wife about the state of the Barry wharf, as well as the general growth of the area: “At the distance of three-fourths of a mile, on or near the Eastern Branch, lie[s] … a very large but perfectly empty warehouse, and a wharf graced by not a single vessel. And this makes the whole intended commercial part of the city.” In short, Barry’s wharf was no longer active, nor, apparently, any ferries. Later maps of the city show a wharf here, but by then, James Barry was long gone, having returned to New York in 1807.