[2] After the Civil War, residential development in Washington, DC, expanded north from downtown to the Blagden Alley-Naylor Court area and attracted several prestigious, affluent residents, including Blanche Bruce, the first African-American to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate, whose historic house is adjacent to the south entrance to Blagden Alley.

[2] Many African-Americans migrated to Washington during this time and came to live in the alley itself in simple dwellings, including lean-tos, and shanties.

[3] Local residents saw the alley dwellings as a nuisance, and Congress passed a law banning their construction in 1892.

[5][6] The D.C. Archives and Record Center moved into the former B.F. McCaully & Co. Tally-Ho Stables in Naylor Court in 1990, but the facility fell into disrepair over the next decade - the archives hold the original wills of Dolley Madison, Francis Scott Key, Frederick Douglass, Henry Adams, Woodrow Wilson, Alexander Graham Bell and Louis D.

[9][10] Fight Club DC, an indoor skate park and music venue, was in Blagden Alley in the mid-2000s.