When the Atlantic Building was completed in 1888, it was the largest commercial structure in the city and one of the first with a passenger elevator. Located on F Street in the heart of downtown, the speculative office building was designed in a Romanesque Revival style by James G. Hill, who had served as Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury and was also the designer of numerous fine private buildings in Washington. The eight-story building featured two large assembly rooms, the location of numerous important public meetings, including one at which the National Zoo was founded. In 1889, the top floor office space served as the home of President Benjamin Harrison's inaugural committee, while the US Forest Service was headquartered here from 1905 to 1940.

Towards the end of the 20th century, the DC Preservation League's offices were located within the Atlantic Building, and, in 1980, the 9:30 Club began on the first floor of the original building, taking its name from the 930 F Street address. Many Washingtonians have fond memories of attending concerts here in the 1980s and 1990s.

Unfortunately, redevelopment brought about the demolition of all but the detailed red brick masonry and terra cotta facade. The current Atlantic Building is a 10-story office complex completed in 2006. It includes the facades of several historic buildings, including the original Atlantic Building.

DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)

Omitted on July 24, 1968; redesignated on August 28, 1973

Within Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site and Downtown Historic District

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The LeDroit Block was built after the completion of the large-scale municipal improvements undertaken by the Board of Public Works ibetween 1871 and 1874. It illustrates the renewed civic aspirations of the post-Civil War era with rich, animated facades that introduce a congenial human scale that enhances the monumentality of the L'Enfant Plan and the nearby General Post Office and Old Patent Office. The block includes one of the city's oldest office buildings and work by noted local architects; the buildings date from 1875 to 1892.

DC Inventory: August 28, 1973 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)

National Register: April 2, 1974

Within Downtown Historic District and Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site

LeDroit Building (800-10 F Street)

This commercial office building was erected in 1875 by A.L. Barber & Co., builders of the suburban LeDroit Park. The building is a rare example of pre-elevator office building design and is a major work of noted local architect James McGill, who held an office in the building until 1882. Located on a corner site, the LeDroit Building features three stories with a raised basement of storefronts, as well as three main entrances. As a free Italianate adaptation of classical detail, the LeDroit Building has a bracketed cornice with alternating triangular and curved pediments, and applied lettering.

812 F Street

This is a commercial row building with the stories, a pressed brick facade, and a bracketed and pedimented cornice. The building was built 1875, probably by architect James McGill, and was occupied in 1877 by stationer J. Bradley Adams, a former tenant of the LeDroit Building.

Adams Building (814-16 F Street)

This is a commercial row building erected in 1878 by stationer J. Bradley Adams. It was used as store by Adams until 1888 and a residence until 1892. Like other buildings on the block, it was likely designed by James McGill.

818 F Street

Owner J. Bradley Adams erected this three-story commercial row building, possibly designed by James McGill, in 1881.

Warder Building (527 9th Street)

This early elevator building was erected in 1892 by B.H. Warder, a wealthy Ohio manufacturer of farm implements, who moved to Washington to invest in real estate. He intended to use the building as offices, apartments, and stores. The Warder Building was designed by architect Nicholas T. Haller and built in 1892. The building housed Haller's office in addition to those of several patent agents, labor unions, and the DC Communist Party during the 1940s.

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Organized in 1845 in the basement of St. Matthew's Church, St. Mary's parish was formed to serve the influx of German Catholic immigrants settling in Washington at the time. Initially located at 15th and H Streets NW, the German Catholic community wanted to erect their own building where they could hear mass in their own language. Through the generosity of General John Van Ness, that desire was fulfilled through his donation of the site on 5th Street between G and H Streets, NW to the immigrants in 1846.

The first church was constructed according to the dictates of Van Ness's deed, which required the parish to build, within one year, a brick or stone church in which divine services must be held regularly or possession of the site and building would revert to the heirs of the original owners. The present church structure, the second on the site, was built in 1891. In designing the church, the architect E. F. Baldwin was influenced by the German Gothic style of architecture. The building material is a rough ashlar blue stone and granite. The central tower and spire especially reflect the vertical lineage typical of Gothic architecture.

DC Inventory: July 24, 1968 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)

Within Downtown Historic District

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The Washington Loan and Trust Company Building is prominently situated across from the Old Patent Office. It was home to the city's first trust company, originally organized in 1889 by Brainerd H. Warner, and acquired by Riggs Bank in 1954. The building is one of the city's first skyscrapers, built prior to height limitations.

The building, designed by James G. Hill and completed in 1891, boasts a Romanesque Revival facade of rock-faced granite with arched windows, and a mixture of stone masonry bearing walls and cast-iron construction. The influence of H.H. Richardson can be seen in the building's rock-faced stone masonry and Romanesque features. Some original interior features remain, including ornamental cast-iron stairs. The main banking room was enlarged and remodeled in the Classical Revival style in 1911‑12. The Corinthian columns are still visible. An addition, designed by Arthur B. Heaton, was constructed in 1926‑27, which expanded the building's presence along F Street.

In more recent years, the building has served as a hotel, first as a Courtyard Marriott and currently as the Riggs Washington DC (the name being a reference to its former use), which opened in 2020 following a major rehabilitation project led by the architecture firm of Perkins Eastman.

DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)

National Register: May 6, 1971

Within Downtown Historic District and Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site

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Having made his fortune in dentistry and San Francisco real estate, Dr. Henry D. Cogswell (1820-1900) used his fortunes to advance the temperance cause, or the movement to curb alcohol consumption throughout the United States. Cogswell in particular believed that if Americans had easy access to cold drinking water, they wouldn’t drink alcohol. As such, he began to donate public water fountains to any city that would accept one. Cogswell, who was not an artist, designed these “temperance fountains” himself. DC accepted a fountain through an Act of Congress on July 6, 1882 and erected it in 1884.

The fountain prominently features the words TEMPERANCE, FAITH, HOPE, and CHARITY on a miniature temple. A metal heron perches on top of the structure, next to a flowering seed, and two large bronze fish are tangled together on a cylindrical pedestal, which features an inscription identifying Cogswell as the donor.

Originally, Cogswell’s intention was that a reservoir of ice would cool the water that would then be dispensed through the mouths of the fish so that the people of DC could enjoy free, ice-cold water at any time, in lieu of the alcohol served in the nearby bars. However, the city quickly lost interest in constantly replenishing the ice in the reservoir, and the water supply was shut off not long after. For many years, after the 21st Amendment ended Prohibition, the fountain stood dry in front of the bustling Apex Liquor Store.

In the 1940s, California Senator Sheridan Downey launched a vociferous campaign to have the fountain, which he called a “monstrosity of art” and an “art travesty,” removed. The motion that he introduced to do so in April 1945, however, was ignored due to the much more pressing issue of World War II, and the motion died.

Other Cogswell temperance fountains have been less lucky. A few others still stand in addition to DC’s, but most have been torn down. Notably, one of the fountains Cogswell erected in his hometown of San Francisco, which depicted Cogswell himself proffering a cold glass of water to passers by, was demolished by an angry mob. DC’s temperance fountain remains a relic of the Victorian era in both its message and in its design.

DC Inventory: February 22, 2007

National Register: October 12, 2007

Within Downtown Historic District and Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site

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The Mary Elizabeth Surratt Boarding House is an 1843 vernacular Greek Revival style dwelling that Mary Surratt operated as a boarding house from September 1864 through April 1865. During this period, John Wilkes Booth visited the boarding house both socially and to meet with other members of the conspiracy while planning President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Mary Surratt was the first woman executed by the federal government, encouraging a debate regarding her guilt that has continued to this day. After her execution for her participation in the assassination conspiracy, subsequent owners continued to maintain the property as a boarding house. In 1925, then-owner Irvan Schwarztman converted the first floor of the dwelling into a commercial space and added show windows at the street level. In 1931, Yow Chin Teas moved into the building and subsequent tenants have included High Wah & Co. Importers, Sie Que Co. Imports, and the Suey Sang Lung Co. grocery. Today, the building is part of the Chinese restaurant chain, Wok & Roll.

DC Inventory: July 24, 1968 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)

National Register: August 11, 2009

Within Downtown Historic District

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This parish was established by Bishop John Carroll in 1794. The initial meeting place of the congregation was a house at the corner of 10th & E streets NW. The congregation worshiped at three other locations prior to this location, which was designed by Laurence J. O'Connor and blessed on November 3, 1872. 12 years later, on November 2, 1884, the first mass was celebrated at the new church. The official dedication took place on December 28, 1884. Additions, designed by Wood, Donn & Deming, were completed in 1904.

This Gothic Revival style church underwent renovations in anticipation of its 1984 bicentennial, yet it still retains most of its historical character, including the baptistery, holy water fonts, and stained glass windows depicting Marian themes and scenes from the life of St. Patrick.

DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)

Within Downtown Historic District

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While it’s currently the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Old Patent Office reflects an era when scientific invention propelled the American economy and began to mold the national character. Although more than a half million patents were issued here, the building was designed not just to house patent examiners, but also to display the models required for patent applications. Throughout the nineteenth century, the Patent Office was an important public attraction, exhibiting the Declaration of Independence, art collections of the National Institute, and other historical artifacts as well. During the Civil War, the building served as a temporary barracks and hospital; Walt Whitman’s nursing here gave inspiration to his poetry. It was also the site of Lincoln’s second inaugural ball. A century later, the building’s rescue contributed significantly to the development of the historic preservation movement and the assumption of federal responsibility for stewardship of historic landmarks. The General Services Administration contemplated demolition of the building for a parking garage in the late 1950s, but President Eisenhower intervened, and in 1962, Congress turned the building over to the Smithsonian for museum use. It was renovated in between 1964 and 1967 and reopened to the public in 1968. Although most of the interior has been altered for use as a museum, parts of the Old Patent Office interior are still visible on the building’s third floor in the National Portrait Gallery’s Great Hall. DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)

Designed by Cluss and Kammerheuber, the Old Masonic Temple enjoyed early prominence due to its important location across 9th Street from the old U.S. Patent Office. In scale and dignity it complements its prestigious neighbor, a symbol of awakening civic consciousness in Washington City during the nationalistic period following the Civil War.

Adolph Cluss characterized the style of the Masonic Temple as French Renaissance; the press, as "Modern renaissance of the 19th century." Lacking its projected mansard roof—omitted for lack of funds—it is reminiscent of antebellum urban club buildings based on the astylar palace design of the Italian 17th century. The Masonic Temple represents a development of this mode in a period when function and pure design were gaining precedence over historical considerations in architecture.

Masonic activity in the District of Columbia dates from about 1795. The Grand Lodge of Masons was the first organized here in January 1811. In the early years of the city the cornerstones of important buildings—notably the White House (1792) and the Capitol (1793), among others—were laid Masonically.

The building is also known as the old Lansburgh's Furniture Store.

DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)

National Register: May 8, 1974

Within Downtown Historic District

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The National Union Building is a narrow office building built in the Romanesque Revival style in 1890. Designed by famous architect Glenn Brown (1854-1932), the building remains the most important property in Washington associated with his career. The building was the architect’s office between 1890 and 1905, which was Brown’s most prolific period as an author and the height of his career as a professional organizer and city planning activist. During this time, the building was the scene of many meetings significant in the planning history of the capital. Built of Hummelstown brownstone quarried in Pennsylvania, the structure today ranks as the city's most outstanding example of the commercial "Richardsonian" Romanesque Revival executed in brownstone.

The name of the building derives from that of its owner, the National Union Insurance Company. After its time as Brown's office, the building became the home of the National Union Fire Insurance Company, which occupied the first floor until the mid-1940s and rented the upper floors to patent attorneys, real estate agents, jewelers, and watch repairers. Today, it is utilized by a variety of professional firms, architects, nonprofit organizations, and attorneys.

DC Inventory: October 24, 1973

National Register: September 21, 1990

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