2004: Creating a stadium-sized building plot requires merging several square blocks by eliminating interior streets. Under the current design, the unit block of O Street and most of Half Street below N Street SE will cease to exist. Home plate will sit in the general vicinity of South Capitol Street and Potomac Avenue SE and the wall in dead centerfield, 409 feet away, will stand near what was once the intersection of First and O Streets SE.

These late nineteenth century houses on N Street SE at the intersection with Van Street are the last survivors of a row that once stretched around the corner onto South Capitol Street. Today, they are separated six lanes of traffic by a vegetable garden which Red Barber's fans will feel fittingly includes a lush stand of rubarb. Although there is raging controversy about its ultimatr use, their site will likely become parking garages and a plaza running behind the left field stands.

This row is among the few momentos of the blue collar neighborhood that was home to the Naval Gun Factory, once Washington's biggest single employer. Although these stalwart houses have lost some original detail, they retain their Victorian cornieces.

2006: By September, 2006, the N Street row houses seemed not even a memory. However, they live on, as much brick and other materials were salvaged during demolition. The oddly-intact brick walls toward the left side of the photo are the remanants of a small industrial building. The rubarb patch has given way to bare clay.

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