One of the city's finest apartment hotels when opened, Meridian Mansions was built between 1916 and 1918, following the designs of A.H. Sonnemann. This prestigious address has served as home to numerous senators, congressmen, and diplomats. Notably, the founding of Czechoslovakia occurred here in 1918.
The lobby features massive marble columns and elaborate ornamental molding. The roof pavilions and lamp standards were removed circa 1963. Meridian Mansions was renovated in 1981.
DC Inventory: December 9, 1982
National Register: July 28, 1983
]]>In February 1931, D.C. Permit to Build #140167 was issued to Kennedy-Warren, Inc. to erect an eight-story apartment hotel at an estimated cost of $3,200,000. Architect Joseph Younger's original design of the Art Deco-style Kennedy-Warren apartment building included 441 apartments, with a total of 2,029 rooms, but the Great Depression and the financial difficulties it created resulted in only half of the original design being built.
A pre-construction Washington Star article noted an "ultra modern innovation" in the design: a circulation system that would pull cool air from the adjoining parkland and pump it into the building during the hot summer months. When the Kennedy-Warren was completed, it was considered the largest and most architecturally significant apartment building in the city.
In 1935, the Kennedy-Warren received a rear left wing addition. The supervising architect for the addition, A.H. Sonnemann, followed Joseph Younger's original design and constructed a portion of the uncompleted half. This addition brought an end to an unofficial hiatus on large-scale apartment building construction that had followed the completion of the original section of the Kennedy-Warren. It added 107 units to the original building, bringing the total to 317 of the planned 441. The Kennedy-Warren was the grand finale of pre-World War II development in the Connecticut Avenue apartment building corridor, and presently stands in excellent condition.
DC Inventory: January 17, 1990
National Register: September 7, 1994
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