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DC Historic Preservation Office 801 North Capitol Street, NE Suite 3000 Washington, DC 20002 202-442-8800 WASHINGTON D.C. WOODLEY PARK HISTORIC DISTRICT WOODLEY PARK 23

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Nestled among such landmarks as the NationalCathedral, Observatory Circle, and the National Zoois the neighborhood of Woodley Park. This residentialdistrict with a central commercial corridor maintains a strong connection to its past and conveys a sense ofhistory through its carefully planned streets, historicarchitecture, and open spaces. Initially on the rural edge of the young federal city, the area that becameWoodley Park remained largely undeveloped until late inthe 19th century. Today, however, rowhouses havereplaced agricultural fields, country estates have givenway to apartment buildings, and Connecticut Avenue—Woodley Park’s primary thoroughfare—is lined withbusy restaurants and shops.

Together, Woodley Park’s mix of former country estates,semi-detached houses, apartment buildings, and row-houses comprise a distinguishable entity that has meritedrecognition as a National Register Historic District. TheWoodley Park Historic District is bounded roughly byCathedral Avenue to the north and east, 29th Street tothe west, and Woodley Road and Connecticut Avenue tothe south and southwest. The district is significant for itsvaried architecture, featuring the work of notable archi-tects such as George Santmyers, Albert Beers, WilliamAllard, and Mihran Mesrobian, and for its contributionto our understanding of development patterns inWashington, DC.

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Woodley Park in winter looking northwestover Connecticut Avenue bridge, 1908.Library of Congress

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afforded a commanding view of the buildings underconstruction in the nascent capital, the port atGeorgetown, and the expanse of the Potomac River.Key’s nephew, Francis Scott Key, is said to have spentconsiderable time at the estate. In later years, Woodleywas rented out and served as the summer residence ofPresidents Martin Van Buren, Grover Cleveland, andJames Buchanan, who took refuge from the heat of thecity at Woodley’s higher elevation.

The Keys soon had a neighbor to the north. Redwood,also known as Oak Hill, was built in 1819 onConnecticut Avenue across from today’s entrance to theNational Zoo. The home provided a respite to residentsfrom the insufferable heat and unpleasantness of aWashington summer, offering a higher elevation, coolerbreezes, and unspoiled rural and forested surroundings.One such resident was Jefferson Davis, whose wifeVarina wrote in 1856 that “at midsummer we took ahouse two or three miles out of town, and spent theheated term there. Mr. and Mrs. [Franklin] Pierce usedfrequently to come for us for the day, and such intimatetalks, such unrestrained intercourse and pleasantriesexchanged are charming memories.”

During the Civil War, Union soldiers looted Redwood’slarge fruit orchards and forced the homeowners to fleeinto the city. The large frame dwelling later became afashionable resort, but was razed in 1920 to make wayfor the Cathedral Mansions apartments.

E A R L Y E S T A T E S

“It has always been fashionable for wealthy mento have rural summer houses in an attempt toescape the heat and accompanying diseases ofthe crowded city centers.”

Throughout much of the 19th century, the area north-west of the city of Washington remained quietly rural, a landscape of gentle hills and winding dirt roads dottedwith country estates. Separating this bucolic environ-ment from the new federal city was the forested ravineof the Rock Creek valley to the south and east.

The land was originally part of several adjoiningMaryland land grants acquired by the Beall familybeginning in 1703. In 1792, the more than 1200 acresamassed by the Bealls was sold out of the family anddivided into smaller tracts, where several large estatesdeveloped.

Philip Barton Key purchased a 250-acre tract containingagricultural lands, forest, and stream valleys. Around1801, he built a large dwelling, calling it Woodley, whichtoday stands at 3000 Cathedral Avenue and is home tothe Maret School. Key sited the house on a hill, which

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Typical of the Federal style, the brick house called Woodleywas symmetrical and restrained, with doorway fanlights anda denticulated cornice over the main three-story block andthe two-story wings. Pictured here in an early view beforeadditions, the mansion has been home to the Maret Schoolsince 1952. Library of Congress

Redwood stood across Connecticut Avenue from today’sentrance to the National Zoo. Built about 1819, the frame housefeatured a full-width two-story porch and roof deck for enjoyingthe view of the city and surrounding countryside.Library of Congress

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Throughout the 18th and much of the 19th centuries,development on the west side of Rock Creek wasfocused primarily in Georgetown. Some residential andcommercial buildings sprang up along WisconsinAvenue, but platted suburban developments wereunprecedented. The first attempt to systematically develop the area came in 1875, when Mrs. A.E.Kervand divided her property at the heart of today’sWoodley Park into 18 lots called “Woodley” after PhilipBarton Key’s prominent estate.

Little is known about Kervand, but the subdivision followed the pattern of Washington’s earliest residentialsuburbs, such as Uniontown, Mount Pleasant, BarryFarm, and Le Droit Park. These early subdivisions provided a bucolic setting for new homes and tookadvantage of existing or planned public transportationlines to provide easy access to downtown. However,Kervand’s plan was less successful at attracting buyers.Given the lack of easy transportation, it ultimately failedto bring buyers and remained a paper subdivision.

By 1878, the land had been subdivided again, this timeinto 31 lots, advertised as “the finest Country seats everofered (sic) for sale about the City.” However, WoodleyLane was still the primary thoroughfare and prospectivebuyers remained cautious.

The earliest settlers in the Woodley Park area arrived bywagon and carriage on dirt roads. Woodley Lane pro-vided the main route for travelers, as ConnecticutAvenue had not yet been extended north of Rock Creek.An 1887 description portrays the difficulty of travel tothis area from downtown, stating that Woodley Lanewas “a country road, winding its way down the hillside,crossing the creek on a wooden bridge a few feet abovethe level of the stream, and thus making the difficultand circuitous assent to the greater elevation ofTennallytown Pike” (Wisconsin Avenue). The oldWoodley Lane roughly followed today’s 24th Street,Woodley Road, 29th Street, and Cathedral Avenue.

The only businesses in the area throughout the 19thcentury were a few mills in the Rock Creek Valley, whichprovided grist milling services for area farmers as well aslumber milling for the construction of new buildingsthroughout the city. Soon, however, the area wouldcome to be seen as lucrative for its real estate develop-ment potential. As the District grew and the need forhousing increased, undeveloped land became a valuablecommodity. Early estates gave way to new subdivisions,which allowed smaller lots and more densely populatedneighborhoods. It is this type of development patternthat shaped the community of Woodley Park.

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Boschke’s Topographical Map of the District ofColumbia shows the look of the Woodley Parkarea in 1861, prior to subdivision. Notice thewinding road, Woodley Lane, which provided themain transportation route through the hilly areauntil Connecticut Avenue was constructed.D.C. Historic Preservation Office

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was organized in 1890 and purchased extensive lands inWashington leading to the new suburb. It also acquiredthe charter for the Rock Creek Railway Company,which Newlands altered to cross Rock Creek on CalvertStreet and to extend service northward along a newroute — Connecticut Avenue Extended. The companywould clear the route, lay the tracks, and build iron trussbridges at Calvert Street to cross the Rock Creek Valleyand at Connecticut over the Klingle Valley. Beginning in1892, streetcar service began from Chevy Chase todowntown Washington, providing reliable transportationto suburban commuters.

Newlands was also instrumental in influencing the government’s decision regarding subdivision layouts.When the Permanent Highway Act was passed in 1893, he saw to it that the prominent landscape designfirm of Frederick Law Olmsted was hired to assist theEngineer Commissioner in drawing up the accompany-ing maps. Under Olmsted’s influence, curved streets thatresponded to the natural topography of the land northand west of Rock Creek were integrated in the City’splan and streets aligned with the existing grid were nolonger required.

Newlands was one of the most influential real estatedevelopers in northwest Washington, DC and the adja-cent Maryland suburb of Chevy Chase. Despite hisinvestments in Chevy Chase, however, it is interesting tonote that Newlands chose to live in Woodley Park at theWoodley estate, which he purchased in 1890.

By 1888, real estate investors Thomas Waggaman andJohn Ridout had acquired the land. They renamed thesubdivision “Woodley Park” and platted it with gentlycurving drives and lots for single family residences thattook advantage of the varied topography. They alsochartered the Rock Creek Railway streetcar line, whichwas designed to travel along Columbia and WoodleyRoads into Woodley Park.

However, the rail line and residential developmentwould have to wait. In 1888, Congress passed an “Act toRegulate the Subdivision of Land Within the District ofColumbia” which extended L’Enfant’s street grid toareas outside the original city boundaries. New subdivi-sions in Washington County were required to follow thecity’s established alignment of orthogonal streets anddiagonal boulevards. Subdivisions like Woodley Parkthat were designed with curving streets were faced withthe possibility of total street redesign and the potentialfor condemnations of property to conform to theserequirements. The confusion surrounding the new lawhindered any development in Woodley Park.

But plans were afoot for development on the far north-ern edge of the District that would alter the history ofWoodley Park. The Chevy Chase Land Companysought to develop the new suburb of Chevy Chase,Maryland and introduce streetcar service for commutingto downtown. Owned and funded by Senator FrancisNewlands of Nevada and other investors, the company

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As early as 1893, the Rock Creek Railway ran on a 20-minute week-day schedule in winter, with a car every 12 minutes in summer toaccommodate riders going to Rock Creek Park, the zoo, and ChevyChase Lake. As homes were built in Woodley Park, many residentscaught one of the 25 streetcars in service along the new ConnecticutAvenue and crossed this Calvert Street trestle bridge to reach federaljobs downtown. Library of Congress

This 1895 map, prepared by theEngineer Department of the Districtof Columbia, shows the influence oflandscape planner Frederick LawOlmsted on the layout of WoodleyPark. The winding streets lie in sharpcontrast to the methodically griddedroads of the urban core.D.C. Historic Preservation Office

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Well-known Washington real estate investors like HarryWardman, Kennedy and Davis, and Middaugh andShannon began to purchase blocks of land in WoodleyPark, subdividing the large lots into many smaller ones,and commenced a building campaign of speculativerowhouses. They hired local architects such as AlbertBeers, Nicholas Grimm, William Allard, GeorgeSantmyers, and A.H. Sonnemann, who employed arange of Colonial Revival, English Tudor, and QueenAnne design vocabularies. The rows surrounded the fewexisting single family residences that had been erected.Estates such as Woodley and Redwood were no longeron the rural fringes of the city, but were fast becomingpart of Washington’s urban fabric.

As Woodley Park transformed into a flourishing neigh-borhood, Connecticut Avenue became a fashionableaddress. Grand townhouses featured limestone facades,ornate keystones over windows and doors, and decora-tive stone relief panels. On 27th, 28th, 29th, andGarfield Streets, developers built more modest brickrowhouses with Flemish, Mediterranean, and Englishinfluences, individualized by alternating the use ofcovered and uncovered porches, varying the fenestrationpatterns, and using an assortment of roof forms, materi-als, and dormer styles.

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Finally, with the street plan, transportation system, andinfrastructure in place, Woodley Park was poised tobecome a residential success. Unfortunately the con-struction boom, which lasted from approximately 1905to 1930, came too late for Thomas Waggaman, whowent bankrupt in 1904 and died just two years later. Hisvision of Woodley Park as a neighborhood of individu-ally designed detached homes essentially died with him.The liquidation of Waggaman’s assets meant that hisreal estate holdings were opened up to speculative developers.

Waggaman’s son Clarke took over the remainder of hisfather’s real estate business and designed some of theearly houses in Woodley Park, despite no formal trainingin architecture. The first residence he built was his ownat 2600 Connecticut Avenue in 1905 (now demolished).Other commissions were for townhouses of three to fourstories in height, including 2519, 2602, and 2604Connecticut Avenue. In all, Waggaman designed nine ofWoodley Park’s houses, but these comprised only a smallportion of the construction activity underway through-out the neighborhood.

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This elegant townhouse at 2602 Connecticut Avenue wasdesigned by Clarke Waggaman and is now used for commer-cial purposes. The stylized neoclassical building retains suchoriginal features as the lion-head keystone and Greek keypanel above the door and the articulated brick base meant toimitate rusticated stone. D.C. Historic Preservation Office

Harry Wardman had these rowhouses on GarfieldStreet built in 1908 in an eclectic style with a rangeof architectural embellishments such as Palladianwindows, Flemish gables, and scalloped arches. In 1914, typical residents included businessmen, government workers, a senator, and a TreasuryDepartment official. D.C. Historic Preservation Office

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1922 on the Tudor revival homes,which featured half timbering,rough stucco finishes, and gothicarches. The development alsoincorporated an emerging neces-sity—the automobile garage.English Village mirrored the pop-ular Tudor and English gardenaesthetics popularized during theera by national magazines suchas Home & Garden, and byprominent designers of manyAmerican suburbs that evolvedafter WWI.

In 1925, a second Wardman/Mesrobian development was built on Cathedral Avenue.Advertisements for these homes

ran in the Washington Star newspaper, touting a salesprice of $17,500 and offering assurance against furtherencroachment on the “tree-crested hills surroundingWoodley Park.” Wardman and other builders continuedthe English theme on Cortland, 28th and 29th Streets.

By 1916, Woodley Park boasted well over 150 rowhous-es, large detached and semi-detached residences, twochurches, and two small apartment buildings. Many ofthe homes featured alley garages for automobiles, whichwere already becoming a standard household item.Families tended to be of the middle and upper classes,most with live-in domestic help.

Harry Wardman was particularly active in the develop-ment of Woodley Park. He amassed a considerable for-tune constructing speculatively here and elsewhere in thecity. He built the rows of townhouses located at 2712-48and 2813-35 27th Street, and 2606-2634 GarfieldStreet. He was also responsible for the construction ofseveral freestanding homes in Woodley Park, including2651, 2657, and 2659 Woodley Road and 2272Cathedral Avenue. In 1909, he built his own grand resi-dence at the corner of Connecticut Avenue andWoodley Road. It cost $60,000 to construct and featureda ballroom measuring 44 by 67 feet on the third floor.

In the early 1920s, Harry Wardman hired architectMihran Mesrobian to design what he called an “EnglishVillage” in Woodley Park. It was built along 34th Streetand Woodley Road, and extended south to CathedralAvenue and east to 32nd Street. Construction began in

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Albert Beers designed this Mediterranean style home 2640Connecticut Avenue for real estate mogul Harry Wardman.Wardman lived here from 1909 until 1928, when hedemolished it to make way for his Wardman Park Tower.Smithsonian Institution

The house at 2601 29th Street demonstrates theromantic English influence in its stone exterior, diamond-pane windows, and Tudor arched entry.Photographed here in 1945, the building served at that time as the Embassy of Panama. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Washingtoniana Room

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The swell of new residents in Woodley Park and morenorthern neighborhoods and the increasing popularityof the automobile called for improvements in the roadsystem serving the neighborhood. In 1907, the City con-structed a new bridge to connect the two halves ofConnecticut Avenue over Rock Creek. Reportedly thelargest concrete bridge in the world, it was designed byGeorge S. Morrison and Edward Pearce Casey. Namedin 1931 after President William Howard Taft, it was ini-tially referred to as “The Million Dollar Bridge” becauseof its enormous construction cost.

Beginning in 1917, Harry Wardman built the first largeluxury apartment/hotel building in Woodley Park, themulti-story Wardman Park Hotel. This apartment andhotel complex (one-sixth of the units were for hotel use,the remainder were rental apartments) was designed byFrank Russell White in a semicircular arc with radiatingwings around a central lobby and dining room. Just tothe south was the Wardman Park Saddle Club, whichstabled horses for residents and guests for riding in RockCreek Park.

Concurrent with the development of the Woodley Parkneighborhood was the establishment along its easternborder of the National Zoo and Rock Creek Park. In1889, the National Zoological Park was planned as a scientific research facility and tourist attraction, nestledwithin a landscape designed by Frederick Law Olmsted,Jr. The following year, Congress designated the areanorth of the zoo as Rock Creek Park, which was created“for the benefit and enjoyment of the people of theUnited States.”

The proximity of the park was undoubtedly a sellingpoint for Woodley Park. The miles of bridle paths andacres of undeveloped land for exploration attractedsome of the earliest homebuyers to the area.

In addition to the park and zoo, other historic elementsof Woodley Park are its churches and schools. The AllSouls Memorial Episcopal Church, located at 2300Cathedral Avenue, was built in 1914 at the eastern edgeof today’s historic district. In 1912, the Catholic Churchpurchased land to house St. Thomas Apostle Church at27th Street and Woodley Road. An associated Catholicschool occupied the townhouses across from the churchfor a number of years. The District soon opened thepublic Oyster School to accommodate the growingnumber of schoolchildren in the neighborhood. Built in1926 at Calvert and 29th Streets, the original buildingwas demolished and rebuilt in 2001 as the city’s onlybilingual public school.

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Pleasure riding through Rock Creek Park has always been popular,whether by buggy, horseback, or automobile. Historically, owners of nearby property could ride horses from their homes throughout thepark. Today, horseback riding is limited to 13 miles of bridle paths at thenorthern end of the park. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Washingtoniana Room

The Taft Bridge, completed in 1907, is notable for its famous lionsculptures designed by Roland Perry. The lions were removed forrestoration in 1985, but were found to be beyond repair. Replicas werecreated by artist Reinaldo Lopez-Carrizo and installed in 2000. Thebridge is listed in the DC Inventory of Historic Sites and the NationalRegister of Historic Places. Postcard courtesy of Paul K. Williams

The Wardman Park Hotel, called “Wardman’s Folly” duringconstruction because it was considered too far from Washington,was nevertheless a huge success. It was filled to capacity almostimmediately, with some residents moving in before constructionhad been completed. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Washingtoniana Room

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Started just a few years after the Wardman Park Tower,the Kennedy-Warren Apartments illustrates the changein architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and ‘30s.Designed by Joseph Younger for investors EdgarKennedy and Warren Monroe, the Kennedy-Warren isone of the District’s premier examples of Art Decoarchitecture. It went up at 3133 Connecticut Avenue in1931 and was the first building in Washington to makeextensive decorative use of aluminum on both the exterior and interior. The design placed an emphasis onverticality and featured Aztec designs on the interior andfine streamlined finishes throughout.

Construction on the Kennedy-Warren was interruptedby the Great Depression. The original plans called foran enormous complex of interlocking crosses centeredaround an entry tower, but the project could not becompleted due to financial constraints. Like many of hispeers, Edgar Kennedy went bankrupt. Even the prolificHarry Wardman, who had heavily invested in the stockmarket to finance his many real estate ventures, sufferedthe same fate. Most development activity in WoodleyPark came to a grinding halt in the 1930s.

In the World War II era, a housing shortage spurredanother boom of residential construction. Three largeapartment complexes were added on 29th Street, andseveral rowhouses on Connecticut Avenue were demol-ished to make way for more new apartments.

With the completion of the Wardman Park Hotel,investors began to see the development potential ofWoodley Park as a neighborhood of high rise and garden apartment buildings. From 1920 to 1921 alone,eight new apartment buildings were built, ranging inheight from three to seven stories. In some instances, single family residences were razed to make way for thenew apartments. Cathedral Mansions, another of HarryWardman’s investments, opened in 1923 on the site ofRedwood, which was razed to make room for the newthree-building apartment complex. Located at thenorthwest corner of Connecticut and CathedralAvenues, Cathedral Mansions added an astonishing2,700 new residents to the Woodley Park neighborhood.It also brought a commercial component to ConnecticutAvenue, with its integral grocery, delicatessen, salon, and drugstore.

The late 1920s and 1930s saw the construction of high-er and denser apartment buildings. In 1928, MihranMesrobian designed an annex to the Wardman ParkHotel. Harry Wardman demolished his own residenceon the southwest corner of Connecticut and WoodleyRoad to make room for the new eight-story highrise,which Mesrobian designed in a cruciform plan withGeorgian Revival details. Four wings extend off anoctagonal central core with graceful semicircular bal-conies at each end. At 140 feet above street level, theWardman Park Tower, which is topped with an ironglobe, dominated the skyline when it was built. Its hill-top location and height still afford residents and guestsstunning views of the city and park.

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Although the original Wardman Park Hotel was demolished, theWardman Park Tower (or Annex) at the corner of Woodley Roadand Connecticut Avenue remains. Built as a luxury residentialhotel, the Tower has served as the home to presidents, vice“presidents, celebrities, members of Congress, and chief justices.D.C. Historic Preservation Office

The impressive Kennedy-Warren apartment building at 3133 Connecticut Avenueis one of the finest examplesof Art Deco design inWashington. After a construc-tion hiatus of over 70 years,the second tower was com-pleted in 2005 according tothe original designs andusing the originally specifiedmaterials. D.C. Historic Preservation Office

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With the exception of a few retail shops, which werepermitted despite great conflict among residents, busi-nesspeople, and the DC Zoning Commission, WoodleyPark remained essentially residential throughout the firsttwo decades of the 20th century. In 1921 the shop at2606 Connecticut Avenue was constructed as the firstpurpose-built commercial building in Woodley Park.The city’s 1920 zoning regulations did not permit com-mercial development in this part of the city, so the casewent all the way to the Supreme Court to determinewhether or not the commercial use could be permitted.

Due to increasing demand for commercial development,the Commission voted in 1930 to allow stores and busi-nesses to move into the neighborhood over the opposi-tion of neighbors. Connecticut Avenue began to trans-form into a commercial strip, and within only ten years,virtually every rowhouse had been converted for use as arestaurant or shop and new commercial buildings filledthe remaining vacant lots.

Today Woodley Park offers a unique mix of open space,small and large residential buildings, and a bustlingcommercial strip. The historic district represents 200years of architectural, landscape, and planning history.No longer on the fringe of a developing city, the neigh-borhood is served by a Metro station which providestransportation to commuting residents as well as thezoo’s three million annual visitors.

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The Delano apartment building at 2745 29th Street was designed in1941 by George Santmyers. The International style of the building isreflected in its modern flat form, use of glass and steel, and stream-lined edifice. Smithsonian Institution

Taken in 1949 and 2004, these two photosshow how little the commercial character ofthe 2600 block of Connecticut Avenue haschanged in the past 50 years. Typical of com-mercial architecture of the period, the centerbuildings are one story with a parapet roofand corner finials. Commercial architectureof the period typically used a vocabulary ofrestrained classicism with flat limestonefacades embellished with stylized classicalornamentation such as pilasters, swags, andurns. Inset - Historical Society of Washington, D.C.

and City Museum

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National Zoological Park

Cleveland Ave

Mass Ave

Calvert St

Woodley Rd

Garfield St

Cathedral Ave

Woodley Place

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By Gregory J. Alexander and Paul K. Williams, Kelsey & Associates, Inc.

Edited by Anne Brockett, D.C. Historic Preservation Office

Brochure Design by Leslie Geer

The Woodley Park Historic District brochure has been funded with theassistance of a matching grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior,National Park Service, through the District of Columbia Office ofPlanning, Historic Preservation Office, under provisions of the NationalHistoric Preservation Act of 1966, as amended. The contents and opin-ions do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department ofthe Interior. The brochure was developed in consultation with theWoodley Park Community Association and the DC Historic PreservationOffice, District of Columbia Government. Anthony Williams, Mayor.

This program receives federal financial assistance for identification andprotection of historic properties under title VI of the Civil Rights Act of1973, as amended. The U.S. Department of Interior and the District ofColumbia prohibit the discrimination on the basis of race, color, age,national origin, or handicap in its federally assisted programs. If youbelieve you have been discriminated against in any program activity, orif you desire further information, please write to Office of EqualOpportunity, U.S. Department of Interior, Washington, DC 20240.

Printed 2004.

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The houses in the 2600 block of Woodley Place (opposite) and 2200 block of Cathedral Avenue (cover) are typical of the residentialarchitecture found throughout the Woodley Park Historic District.D.C. Historic Preservation Office

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