Community Corner

Empty 'Blue Tarp' Lot Remains Empty as Lawsuits and Historic Projects Brew

Property's former owner says it was sold without her permission; archeologist searches for freed slave Yarrow Mamout

An empty Georgetown lot where the condemned "blue tarp" house was demolished Nov. 12 will remain empty until further notice, parties interested in the lot's future said. 

Any changes to 3324 Dent Pl. will not happen immediately because the lot's ownership is in dispute, and city architects say the site may have important historical value. 

The listed owner of the property, Deyi Awadallah, said that if he is determined as the legal owner, he is going to build a small home similar to the one that stood before. But as it stands, the previous owner claims the property was sold without her permission, Awadallah said. The court hearing to determine rightful ownership will be held on Dec.6. 

In the meantime, historians believe Yarrow Mamout, a slave who bought his own freedom, was the owner of the first house built at 3324 Dent Pl. 

Mamout was taken from his home in Guinea to serve as a slave in the U.S. for decades, said Jerry McCoy, the Peabody Room’s special collections librarian at the Georgetown Public Library.

Mamout moved to Georgetown as a free man in the early 1800s and symbolizes an important time in the neighborhood's history, McCoy said. A portrait of Mamout painted by James Alexander Simpson hangs in the Peabody Room.

Ruth Trocolli, D.C. Historic Preservation Office archeologist, wants to get a team over to the lot to search for artifacts left by Mamout and thinks Mamout himself may be buried there. 

"I'd love to get in there and take a look more closely to see what was there," Trocolli said. "To be able to learn more about him and his wife is an amazing opportunity."

Both McCoy and Trocolli wanted more of an opportunity to study the property and were surprised the house was demolished so quickly.

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“I’d been through the property before, but I would have liked to have been there to photograph it specifically from an archeological perspective,” Trocolli said.

McCoy was after items for the Peabody Room and managed to grab a piece of 19th Century fencing during the demolition.

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Both McCoy and Trocolli agree that the “blue tarp” house was probably not the original structure built by Mamout, but said the wood frame of the house was interesting in itself and that some believe the brick foundation was the same that supported Mamout’s house. 

“It’s unfortunate the house had to end up the way it did after surviving for a century,” McCoy said. 

D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs determined the house’s fate after the property was condemned and neighbors expressed concern about the safety of the structure. Due to ownership concerns and the U.S. government shutdown, the department took about a year from when the permit was issued to raze the house.

“Everyone was well aware of this process,” said a DCRA official. “The neighbors I think were very concerned about the property and the conditions it may have been causing.”

The house had been considered vacant since July 2010, had a tree fall on it in August 2011 and was designated as a “blighted” property in November 2011.

Georgetown Commissioner Ron Lewis said the house had been falling apart for years, and the tree falling on it… “that was just the final blow.”

 “It has been neglected for so long,” Lewis said. “There was just no way to save it.”




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