The Euram Building, completed in 1971, is a Modernist office building designed by George Hartman and Warren Cox of the major Washington firm of Hartman-Cox Architects. Since its construction by the Maritime Company in the early 1970s, the Euram Building has received widespread praise for its innovative design.
The building’s site was purchased by the Euram Corporation around 1968. The Euram Corporation, an investment firm associated with an Italian bank, wanted “a better than average building that would contribute something to the city.” Constructed between 1970 and 1971, the Euram Building’s design was likely inspired by a never constructed building at nearby 1 Dupont Circle designed by well-known architect Kevin Roche. The work of Louis Kahn, another noted architect of the era, has also been referenced as inspiration for the building’s design.
In 1971, architectural critic Benjamin Forgey of the Washington Star wrote, “It is rare to come upon a new office building that is truly designed, and rarer still to find one that is designed with boldness, originality, and tact.” That same year, the Euram Building received an award from the Washington Board of Trade, and, in 1972, it was honored by the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) Potomac Valley Chapter. Decades later, in Modernism in the District of Columbia, a 2009 survey, Robinson & Associates wrote, “At the time, the Euram Building resembled no other in the District and broke every rule of the Washington office building design that had been established over the previous two decades.”
Located on the south side of Dupont Circle between 19th Street NW and New Hampshire Avenue NW, the eight-story Euram Building’s footprint is trapezoidal in shape, with its apex facing Dupont Circle. The building is framed by brick piers, with alternating glass ribbon windows and pairs of concrete girders stretching between the piers. This gives the building a horizontal emphasis, particularly along 19th Street and New Hampshire Avenue, the east and west elevations, respectively. The building’s concrete crossbeams – what look like slots between the girders – are also visible on these elevations. These perpendicular crossbeams are visible in the building’s interior courtyard (or atrium), where they support the cantilevered floor space.
Ribbon windows and pairs of post-tensioned girders are visible on the north elevation, but only at the second floor, just above the main entrance, and the top two floors. Like the east and west elevations, perpendicular crossbeams are also visible at these floors. These beams are most evident when looking up at the top floor (eighth floor) and the recessed seventh floor that stretch between the angled brick of the front of the building. The angles of the triangular brick piers lead towards the interior courtyard.
The main entrance, located between the angled brick piers of the north elevation, leads to a large, open-air interior courtyard that rises through the entire building (86-feet in height). Offices, visible through glass, are cantilevered above this trapezoidal-shaped space. At the south end of the courtyard are two brick cylinders that contain the building’s elevator shafts.
Despite its Modernist design and features, the Euram Building hints at the coming “contextualism” of Postmodern architecture, which would flourish in the 1980s and 1990s. Thus, the building references the Dupont Circle Building (1931, Mihran Mesrobian) just across 19th Street and the Patterson House (Washington Club, 1903, Stanford White) on the northeast side of Dupont Circle.
Postmodern design would become a hallmark of Hartman-Cox Architects. The firm would go on to design some of DC’s most significant Postmodern buildings, including the National Permanent Building (1974, since altered), the Bond Reading Room at the Folger Shakespeare Library (1983), Market Square (1990), and One Franklin Square (1990). In 1994, Forgey wrote of the “Washington School” of architecture, a school Hartman-Cox Architects adhered to. This architectural movement pays attention to “sense of place” and a building’s “site and surroundings,” as well as “traditional historical styles and motifs in the design of new buildings.”
Although clearly Modernist, the Euram Building was the beginning of the firm’s move towards a new style of architecture that considered the surrounding context. Hartman-Cox Architects has won more than 100 awards, including the AIA Architectural Firm Award in 1988.
DC Inventory: May 1, 2025
National Register: July 9, 2025
Within Dupont Circle Historic District and Massachusetts Avenue Historic District
]]>This row house at 1812 19th Street NW is one of three properties around the nation closely connected to L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology (the other two properties are in New Jersey and Arizona). Here, at this property within the Dupont Circle Historic District, Hubbard had his office from 1956 to 1961. While working here, Hubbard wrote many important administrative documents, and developed policies and procedures for the new church – which had just been established on July 4, 1955. These publications, lectures, and policies written and developed in Washington – and distributed by the Hubbard Communications Office, also on-site – helped guide the church to become a major religion known worldwide. At this row house, during these early years of the church, Hubbard officiated and performed Scientology’s first marriage ceremony. Importantly, as the landmark's name suggests, this building contained the Founding Church of Scientology and its offices, as well as the Scientology Academy.
During this time, Hubbard and the church were leasing the property – in addition to the row house next door (at 1810 19th Street). After 1961, the church’s headquarters moved to an estate in Sussex, England. Over the next four decades, the row house at 1812 19th Street continued to serve as office space for different companies and organizations. In 2003, the church’s Heritage Properties International purchased and restored the property to its late-1950s to early 1960s period of significance. Although the building is once again linked to Scientology, the Founding Church is now located at 1424 16th Street NW – within the Sixteenth Street Historic District.
Born in Tilden, Nebraska in 1911, Hubbard was always intellectually curious, and deeply interested in exploring the world. Early on, Hubbard enrolled in engineering at The George Washington University. During World War II, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, which took him to Australia. Simultaneously, Hubbard became a prolific writer, publishing a novel in 1937 and 140 short stories by 1940. He became known for his contributions to pulp fiction and the magazine Astounding Science Fiction. His breakout moment that would change history occurred in 1950. That year, his New York Times bestseller Dianetics was published. The book, which famously promoted “processing” / ”auditing,” quickly gained a following, and various groups were soon meeting around the country. Over the next five years, Dianetics transitioned into the Scientology religion. The landmark's nomination form notes: “While Dianetics was a means by which one could understand the mind, Scientology provided a knowledge of life and one’s existence as an eternal spiritual being.” Therefore, Hubbard is now considered a major historical figure in American religious movements.
Prior to this individual landmark designation, 1812 19th Street has long been recognized as a contributing property to the Dupont Circle Historic District. Designed by Waddy B. Wood’s firm of Wood, Donn & Deming, this Beaux Arts row house with a distinctive Flemish gable was completed in 1904. The building, which is clad in brick and limestone masonry, is one of six row houses designed by Wood, Donn & Deming along the west side of 19th Street, between S and T streets. Like many other properties in Washington, DC, this row house had a series of owners and residents – including a United States senator – before it was converted to office use.
DC Inventory: June 30, 2022
National Register: September 6, 2022
]]>Completed in 1890, the George S. Fraser House was designed by Hornblower and Marshall, a prominent Washington architecture firm. The Fraser home is architecturally indicative of the firm’s stylistic originality in the 1880s and 1890s. Defined as an architecturally transitional building, the large structure combines elements of the Richardsonian Romanesque, Italian Renaissance, and English-American Colonial styles. Distinctive elements include the use of pink granite, a tiled and hipped roof, Palladian windows, and a pillared portico.
The home was originally built for George S. Fraser, a New York merchant who arrived in the District in 1888. His widow sold the home in 1901 to Miriam Douglas Thropp, daughter of Abraham Lincoln’s Assistant Secretary of War and president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, Thomas Alexander Scott. After Miriam’s death in 1930, the home was sold and subsequently opened to the public as the Parrot Tea Room (with a boarding house upstairs) in 1932.
In 1950, the space was leased to John Goldstein who altered the space for restaurant service, operating The Golden Parrot Restaurant Inc. until 1974. It then housed the Sagittarius Nightclub.
Today, the former home, that went through a series of uses, is the National Affairs Office of the Church of Scientology.
DC Inventory: June 27, 1974
National Register: August 19, 1975
]]>Initially opened as a “musty little beer joint” in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, DC, Paramount Steakhouse (later renamed Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse)) became a haven for the LGBTQ+ community, almost entirely by accident. George Katinas and his sisters—Annie, Sue, Kitty, and Sophie—were descendants of Greek immigrants who were dedicated to ensuring the restaurant’s success.
The Katinas operated the restaurant as a family affair, treating customers like kin and working diligently to provide patrons with the best possible service and care. The restaurant became recognized for the family’s openness, kindness, and acceptance of customers—in addition to the steakhouse’s good food, lighthearted atmosphere, and a charismatic woman behind the counter: Annie Katinas. Described as a “force of nature,” Annie Katinas Kaylor (1927-2013) is remembered fondly by patrons and family alike. Paul Kuntzler, a pioneering advocate for gay rights who visited the restaurant for the first time in the 1960s, described Annie as such: “She went out of her way to understand the lives of the people whom she was serving and to instill her values into the restaurant staff…It’s hard to think of anyone who isn’t gay or lesbian who played such a prominent role in the gay and lesbian community.”
Renamed Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse in 1962, the restaurant expanded in various locations across the district—however, the original location continued to act as a gathering place for the gay community of Washington. Even following the lull in business connected to the vandalism following Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, loyal customers continued to support Annie’s and traverse the city to come have dinner or a drink at the restaurant. In 1985, Annie’s moved a block down the street to 1609 17th Street NW, while the original building became home to JR’s Bar (1519 17th Street NW), which currently operates as a gay bar, carrying the legacy of Annie’s acceptance and community cultivation into the present-day.
DC Inventory: December 17, 2020
Within Dupont Circle Historic District
This is a stop on the DC's LGBTQ+ History Tour.
For more information about DC's LGBTQ History, please see the Historic Context Statement for Washington’s LGBTQ Resources.
]]>The Tabard Inn was established at 1739 N Street in 1922 by entrepreneur Marie Willoughby Rogers. At the time she was recently widowed; her husband, a prominent geologist, had died unexpectedly while on a mission with the US Geological Survey. Mrs. Rogers, who had previously operated a small restaurant in New York City, initially intended to operate the townhouse as a guest house and party space. Within months of its opening, however, she had introduced a tearoom, and the guest house was operating more formally as an inn. She sought to imbue the hostelry with the ambiance of an English Country Inn and named it after the inn in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. In 1928 and 1937, Rogers expanded the business into the adjacent houses at 1741 N Street and 1737 N Street, respectively, connecting the three internally.
During the 1910s, independent tearooms, increasingly run by women, were opened to a broader clientele. Often in converted residences or small commercial establishments, tearooms offered a domestic feel and home-cooked meals. By the 1920s, and especially during Prohibition, tearooms were profitable business ventures that even supported their own trade publications, largely to provide women with advice on how to succeed in business. The Tabard, which regularly advertised itself as a tea house, fit the model, but was not alone in DC. The economic pressures of the Great Depression and material shortages of World War II shuttered tearooms nationwide but, as a whole, those in DC survived.
Rogers oversaw operations until her death in 1970. The building was then threatened with demolition. Most independent teahouses in the city had already succumbed to redevelopment and other forces. But in 1974, the Tabard Inn was rescued by Fritzi and Edward Cohen, who purchased the property and re-opened the inn and restaurant. Still operating today under the ownership of Mrs. Cohen and her employees, the Tabard Inn is a survivor, distinguished as the oldest inn in the city to be continuously owned and operated by women.
DC Inventory: February 27, 2020
National Register: June 22, 2020
]]>The apartment building at 2225 N Street was designed by Eugene Waggaman in an Early 20th Century Vernacular style, with brick masonry walls and a terra-cotta tile roof. This four-story, 32-unit building was constructed by developer Harry Wardman in 1925 and renovated in 1994.
The massing of 2225 N Street reflects Waggaman's predilection toward providing light and air circulation to residents. The original U-shape of the building maximized the amount of light and air. It also provided residents with a view of Rock Creek Park, thanks to the rear court's orientation towards the park's green space. An addition has since filled this court, but the original building's design is still visible.
DC Inventory: May 16, 1990
National Register: September 9, 1994
]]>The Samuel M. Bryan House was built in 1885 and designed by architect W. Bruce Gray. Samuel M. Bryan worked in various capacities, starting at age 15 when he served as a drummer boy in the Union Army during the Civil War. From there, he went on to work at the Treasury Department, the Post Office Department, the Universal Postal Congress on behalf of Japan, and then eventually he became the President of the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company, a position in which he served until 1889.
After this time, Bryan moved out of Washington but it is unknown where he went or when he died. In 1895, the house was sold to Washington philanthropist, Bessie J. Kibbey. She added a third story to the existing back of the building in 1904.
The Church of the Saviour bought the house in 1950 and added a one story addition to the rear while also adding partitions on the third floor among other changes to convert the building from a residence to a church and offices. The solid, dark building dominates nearby structures. There is no superfluous ornamentation to distract from the strong influence of the tower, entrance portal and building height. Romanesque in detail, individual and linear elements are defined by boldly articulated materials and shapes. The interior, though more decorative, is related in style to the exterior. The single greatest elements are the central living halls and galleried stair. Similar details used throughout unify the chambers.
DC Inventory: February 22, 1972 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
Within the Massachusetts Avenue Historic District and the Dupont Circle Historic District
]]>Built from 1881 to 1882 and designed by architect John Fraser, this house was the residence of James G. Blaine until 1883. Blaine served as Secretary of State under Presidents Garfield and Harrison and later became the first President of the Pan-American Congress. Blaine was the Republican presidential nominee in 1884. He had previously served as Speaker of the US House and as a US Senator from Maine.
The house is the only surviving example of the large mansions, built during the late 1800s, that once surrounded Dupont Circle. After Blaine, the house's other notable owner was inventor and entrepreneur George Westinghouse, who bought the home in 1901 and resided there until his death in 1914.
DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
Within Dupont Circle and Massachusetts Avenue Historic Districts
]]>The Embassy of Iraq's consular office, also known as the Boardman House, was built in 1893 following designs by Hornblower & Marshall. William J. Boardman and his family were the first occupants. Boardman's daughter, Mabel, led the American Red Cross in the early 20th century and continued to live in the home until her death in 1946. Since 1962 (except when diplomatic ties were severed from 1991 to 2003), the building has served as the diplomatic mission of Iraq.
DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
Within Dupont Circle Historic District and Massachusetts Avenue Historic District
]]>One of the city's most grandiose houses, the Perry Belmont House is an ornate stone mansion built in 1909 in the Beaux Arts style. Designed by the fashionable French architect Ernest Sanson with Horace Trumbauer of Philadelphia overseeing the construction, the house is a significant example of a lavish city residence for the very wealthy designed in the early twentieth century as a place for elaborate entertaining.
In 1906, Perry Belmont, the son of the New York financier August Belmont and the grandson of Commodore Matthew C. Perry, purchased the block bounded by New Hampshire Avenue, Corcoran Street, 18th Street, and R Street. At the time this area around Dupont Circle was the most fashionable section of the city. Belmont served as a Congressional Representative from New York from 1881 to 1887 and as Minister to Spain from 1888 to 1889. While in Europe he became familiar with the designs of Sanson and hired the École des Beaux-Arts-trained architect to design his Washington residence. Sanson designed many works in Paris and Belgium and a house in Madrid, Spain, which has been occupied by the American Embassy.
The building later came to serve as the International Eastern Star Temple. The Eastern Star is the woman's organization associated with the Freemasons.
DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
National Register: May 8, 1973
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