Up until the early twentieth century, the Brightwood area was mostly rural. In the 1820s, Brightwood contained important transportation routes until the road network changed during the Civil War for a line of defensive fortifications. Eventually, the Highway Act promoted construction of streetcar lines and the neighborhood’s population growth took off.
During the interwar period, streetcars, bus lines, and cheap land values induced considerable construction of multi-family buildings. The housing demand and government financing pushed the production of apartment units well beyond that of houses. Constructed and opened in 1939, The Glade Apartments is a three-story building designed by George T. Santmyers (1889-1960) for the the Standard Construction Company. Santmyers designed at least 440 apartment buildings, in addition to single-family homes and other building types; The Glade was one of several of his commissions in Brightwood.
The most notable feature of this site is the unusual orientation of the building oblique the to the street, a consequence of fitting it onto a modest parcel carved out of an irregular "square" bounded by 14th Street, 13th Place, Peabody Street and Fort Stevens Drive. These streets are remnants of the nineteenth-century roads of rural Brightwood.
DC Inventory: November 17, 2016
National Register: January 31, 2017
]]>Built in 1936, 1937, and 1938, respectively, these four low-rise buildings in Brightwood are representative of the modest apartment buildings constructed to address the city’s explosive population growth in the interwar period. The buildings are designed with Moderne stylistic elements, including geometric brick patterns, stone ornamentation, and glass blacks illustrate the development of architect George T. Santmyers’ (1889-1960) architectural vocabulary away from strictly classical revival forms. The Concord Apartments represent the efficient housing solutions for a rapidly expanding population in DC. Between 1930 and 1940, the city’s population expanded by 176,000—more than one-third of the previous population. Modest, efficient, and affordable apartment buildings like these were intended to serve a growing federal workforce. Their concentration in Brightwood is representative of the neighborhood’s evolution from rural to urban following the extension of transit lines and the adoption of a new zoning ordinance.
DC Inventory: July 28, 2016
National Register: October 18, 2016
]]>Vizcaya Apartments, formerly known as the Chilchester Arms, is a conventional low-rise apartment building, built in 1936. Designed with Moderne stylistic elements, such as geometric brick and stone ornamentation and Deco-inspired setbacks, these elements illustrate the restrained emergence of architect George T. Santmyers’ (1889-1960) style away from strictly classical revival forms. The location of the building also reflects the growth of transportation networks and residential construction patterns in the interwar period, as the population of the city expanded north from the center of DC. The building’s location along the bustling corridor of Fourteenth Street is representative of the efficient housing solutions in response to the rapidly expanding DC population. Between World War I and World War II, the federal government’s expansion brought many employees to the area. Without adequate numbers of single-family houses, architects constructed apartment buildings as suitable alternatives, effectively reshaping DC’s once-rural landscape north of Florida Avenue.
DC Inventory: June 8, 2016
]]>Designed by renowned Washington architect George T. Santmyers, the Fort View Apartments complex, also known as Fort Stevens Place, is comprised of two three-story brick and cinder block buildings built between 1938 and 1939. The conventional low-rise apartment buildings incorporate both Art Deco and Moderne stylistic components.
DC Inventory: November 19, 2009
National Register: January 21, 2010
]]>Built in 1950 on 10th Street NW across from Ford's Theatre, this diminutive restaurant is virtually the last remaining example of the stylish mid-20th century commercial storefronts that were once common throughout downtown Washington.
It was designed by Bernard Lyon Frishman Associates in a distinctive Art Moderne mode characteristic of diners of the era, and particularly of the restaurant’s fellow Blue Bell chain of restaurants. The all-glass front, wave-patterned mosaic, and large neon sign were architectural and promotional responses to the faster-paced automobile age, and the brightly lit, visible interior of the shop became part of its advertising.
In 2007, developer Doug Jemal disassembled the shop with the promise of reconstruction. In 2019, he finally began the process of rebuilding the historic shop and renovating the exterior sign. The site of the original Waffle Shop now houses a contemporary office building.
Today, the Waffle Shop has been reconstructed on the 500 block of K Street NW near Mount Vernon Square, along with two other one-time commercial properties that were saved from demolition and moved from a nearby block: the Hodges Sandwich Shop Building and the Lord Baltimore Filling Station. The Waffle Shop is once again serving customers, but as Stellina Pizzeria (which also extends into the adjacent Hodges building).
DC Inventory: March 27, 2008
This is a stop on the Lingering on the Palate: the Ghosts of the DC Food Scene Tour
]]>The Greyhound Bus Terminal, completed in 1940, is a classic Art Deco/Streamline Moderne landmark, with a design aesthetic that epitomizes the promise of the industrial age as the hope for the future. The stepped central tower facing New York Avenue NW, a typical "ziggurat" design, exudes freshness and optimism, with its clean, triumphal lines. The clear planar and curvilinear forms with smooth surfaces also suggest the speed with which Greyhound's Super Coaches were to whisk patrons to their destinations.
DC's Greyhound Bus Terminal is the work of William Strudwick Arrasmith (Wischmeyer, Arrasmith & Elswick Architects) of Louisville, Kentucky, who designed more than 25 Greyhound bus terminals between 1937 and 1950. The building features quintessential materials of the Streamline Moderne style, including limestone, glazed brick, glass block, aluminum, formica, and terrazzo.
For more than 40 years, from 1940 to 1987, the Greyhound Bus Terminal was an important transportation hub for the city, especially during the years of World War II. In April 1947, following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Morgan v. Virginia, which invalidated state laws that enforced segregation on interstate transportation, the "Journey of Reconciliation" — led by civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, and co-sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) — departed from the terminal.
Most famously, the terminal served as one of two departure points in DC for the 1961 Freedom Rides, also sponsored by CORE. Intended to test the enforcement of the U.S. Supreme Court decisions that had ruled bus segregation unconstitutional, a bus departing from this station, as well as one departing from the nearby Trailways station, took Black and white riders through several Southern states. With interracial pairs sitting together in the bus seats and Black riders stationed at the front of the bus, the rides did not encounter trouble as they departed DC, but as they traveled further south, the Freedom Riders faced mobs and organized violence. The Freedom Rides became a significant moment for the Civil Rights Movement.
Threatened with demolition after its closure in 1987, the Greyhound Bus Terminal was saved by preservationists from the DC Preservation League, the Art Deco Society of Washington, and the Committee of 100 on the Federal City, who mobilized quickly and successfully to have the building added to the DC Inventory of Historic Sites that same year.
Notably, in an effort to "modernize," the terminal's exterior had been enclosed with a slipcover of cement-asbestos wall and metal mansard roof panels in 1976. Preservationists successfully argued that the slipcover had been added with minimal impact to the original exterior, and that once the slipcover was removed the streamlined design of 1940 would be found.
Today, the former terminal serves as the entrance pavilion to a 12-story office building completed in 1991. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the historic landmark's exterior, and interior lobby and waiting room were restored by architect Hyman Myers. The historic landmark designation was extended to the interior lobby and waiting room in 2025, with a new period of significance that extends from the terminal's opening in 1940 to the completion of the restoration in 1991.
DC Inventory: March 4, 1987
DC Inventory (Amendment, including Interior Lobby and Waiting Room): November 20, 2025
]]>The Wilbur J. Cohen Building, formerly the Social Security Administration Building, is a monumental presence amongst significant public buildings on the National Mall. The building is part of the modern architectural movement of the first half of the 20th century, while harking back to 19th century revivalism in its organization and detailing.
Charles Z. Klauder (1872-1938), consulting architect under the supervision of then Supervising Architect of the Treasury, Louis A. Simon (1867-1958), designed the building with block-like massing, planar wall surfaces, and simple geometric forms that are reflective of classically influenced modern styles that dominated the design of public buildings of the era.
Constructed between 1939 and 1940, the Social Security Administration Building is primarily clad in Indiana limestone and rises five stories, with a sixth floor penthouse/recreational space. The interior of the building falls more clearly into Art Moderne characteristics through the use of sharp contrasts between materials, clean geometric forms, and shiny and smooth-textured materials. The building includes an extensive art collection, including murals by Ben Shahn and Seymour Fogel.
For many years, the building has housed Voice of America and the US Agency for Global Media.
DC Inventory: April 26, 2007
National Register: July 6, 2007
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