The Euclid was built between 1919 and 1920 by owner Howard M. Etchison, among the most prominent of Washington’s early-20th-century developers. The architect was Claughton West, who designed more than 600 houses and 40 apartment buildings in his long career. The six-story corner building displays classical Italianate facades of variegated brown brick with limestone trim and an elaborate modillioned cornice. The two-level lobby is also notable for its exceptional herringbone terra cotta floor.
This elegant structure typifies the mid-rise apartment buildings that became increasingly popular in streetcar suburbs of early-20th-century Washington, especially after the city’s exponential growth during World War I. Multi-family dwellings had been slower to gain acceptance in Washington than in other cities like Boston, New York, and Chicago, but once accepted, apartment buildings became a major component of the city’s architectural fabric and heritage.
DC Inventory: September 24, 2009
National Register: April 29, 2010
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