Godey Lime Kilns

To find these cool ruins from the 19th century, you’ll have to trek a bit off the beaten path—from the intersection of L Street Northwest and 26th Street Northwest, walk west on L Street until it reaches a dead end (past the highway ramp). You’ll emerge atop Godey’s Lime Kilns, which were constructed in 1864 and operated until 1908. If you walk down the slope, you’ll find a commemorative plaque with the briefest of explanations.

The longer story is this: In the 1830s, kilns began to be built in this area to turn limestone into lime. [1] Lime was a widely used product before the 20th century. Families used it as a disinfectant or to paint (whitewash) walls, and farmers spread it on their fields to make soil less acidic. Most valuably, lime was the basis of cement. When mixed with sand, it could be used to construct the country’s young capital city. [2]

This was the perfect site for Edward Godey’s lime business, located as it was just 250 feet from where the C&O Canal ended. You might be able to spy it across the parkway from the kilns. Limestone was floated down the C&O Canal from as far away as Harpers Ferry and unloaded right on the shore in front of Godey’s four kilns. [3] From there the limestone (calcium carbonate) would be loaded into the kilns and fired until all of the carbon dioxide burned off, turning it to lime (calcium oxide). It would then be pulverized and mixed with water (“slaked”); otherwise it would slowly turn back to limestone from its exposure to the carbon dioxide in the air. The slaked lime could then be combined with sand to make concrete.

By the early 20th century, the lime industry was in steep decline. A survey by the U.S. Bureau of Mines in 1938 found that although the output of lime had barely dipped, the number of firms, particularly small local firms, had declined precipitously. Increasingly concrete was being made by larger producers in more efficient kilns. [4] John Dodson, who bought the kilns from Godey’s family in 1897, closed the business in 1907.

In the 1960s, to make way for the construction of the ramps to the Whitehurst Freeway, two of the kilns were dismantled. [5] The remaining two were restored by the National Park Service and the District of Columbia Department of Highways. [6]