The Arts Club of Washington encompasses two adjoining historic buildings: the Cleveland Abbe House (also known as the Timothy Caldwell House and Caldwell-Monroe House) at 2017 I Street NW and the General Robert MacFeely House at 2015 I Street NW. They retain social, architectural, and institutional significance. The Abbe House is a National Historic Landmark.
Both properties have been associated with distinguished figures in American political, military, and social history. Most notably, James Monroe lived at 2017 I Street while a Cabinet member in the Madison Administration. He then lived here for several months in 1817 while president — prior to moving into the White House. From 1877 to 1909, this Federal style building was the home of Cleveland Abbe, a prominent meteorologist known as the father of the U.S. Weather Service.
Further, the Federal style Abbe House (constructed from 1802-06) and Victorian Eclectic style MacFeely House (c. 1860) are important examples of 19th century American architecture and design. Ownership by the Arts Club of Washington — which combined the homes in 1929 — has brought new significance to the property through association with an important Washington, DC cultural institution.
Cleveland Abbe House / Caldwell-Monroe House / Timothy Caldwell House (2017 I Street NW)
DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
National Register: March 24, 1969
National Historic Landmark: May 15, 1975
General Robert MacFeely House (2015 I Street NW)
DC Inventory: May 18, 1983
National Register: September 15, 1989
Both buildings within George Washington University/Old West End Historic District
]]>Foggy Bottom's historic Ulysses Grant School is a three-story, brick masonry public school building constructed in 1882. The robust Victorian Era building was originally named the Analostan School, in recognition of the Native Americans who once inhabited the nearby Potomac River shores, but was renamed in 1890 in honor of General Ulysses S. Grant, leader of the Union forces during the Civil War and the 18th President of the United States. The building was designed by noted DC architect John B. Brady.
The interior of the Grant School is one of only a few school interiors that retains an exceptionally high degree of integrity. Original wainscoting, molded windows and door surrounds, hardware, transoms, and some wood panel doors remain intact. The building now houses School Without Walls.
DC Inventory: May 25, 2006
National Register: May 22, 2007
Within George Washington University/Old West End Historic District
]]>Engine Company No. 23 is a modest, two-story red brick firehouse in an Arts and Crafts interpretation of an Italian Renaissance Revival style. Designed by prominent architects Hornblower & Marshall and architect Snowden Ashford (1866-1927), the firehouse serves as a visible landmark of Foggy Bottom since its construction in 1910. This firehouse is the smallest of all DC's firehouses, measuring approximately thirty-five feet wide by ninety feet deep. It is also one of only two firehouses in the city intended to accommodate a single piece of apparatus.
The interior plan is unusual among other DC firehouses; rather than having side-by-side spaces inside the firehouse for fire engines, Engine Company No. 23 has two single "stacked" spaces (engine-behind-engine), accessible by single apparatus doors at both the front and rear of the building. This innovative arrangement is symptomatic of the developed Foggy Bottom neighborhood, requiring a firehouse with a narrow width due to limited residential space.
Identified for sale in 1940, the neighborhood protested to save the building for its original purpose. Engine Company No. 23 is still in operation today.
DC Inventory: June 23, 2005
National Register: June 6, 2007
Within George Washington University/Old West End Historic District
]]>Designed and built by sculptor John J. Earley in 1907, this building is one of two artists’ workspaces on the block, the other being the adjacent Augustus Bussard House and Studio (1916) at 2129 G Street NW. The Earley Office and Studio is located mid-block on the north side of the street. The two-story main office building is L-shaped in plan. The studio, or back building, is rectangular in plan and made up of one- and two-story sections. A landscaped courtyard with mature vegetation and benches is located in the space between the studio and the main office building.
The Earley Office and Studio is significant as the workspace of John J. Earley, the artist, architect, and engineer who perfected a method of mixing and exposing the aggregate that combines with cement and water to produce concrete. Earley is notable for his architectural concrete, which combined durability with beauty.
Shortly after construction of the office and studio in Foggy Bottom, John J. Earley moved into a house in Mount Pleasant, where he resided from 1911 to 1942.
DC Inventory: January 28, 2010
National Register: June 18, 2010
Within George Washington University/Old West End Historic District
]]>Built around the 1870s, the Oscar W. Underwood House stands amid similar houses that retain the ambiance of residential living in Washington in the early 20th century.
A strong driving force behind the Underwood-Simmons Tariff of 1913, Alabaman Oscar Underwood was elected to Congress in 1896 and was vaulted into national prominence after the 1910 elections when Democrats regained control of the Congress and made him House Majority Leader. As a result, Underwood became a leading contender for the 1912 Democratic Presidential nomination, the first resident of the South to be seriously considered for that high office since the Civil War. He did not get a majority of the votes at the convention, but he went on to serve in the U.S. Senate in 1914 and prove invaluable to the Wilson administration.
After Underwood left the building, the National Law Center inhabited it and years later, the Art Department of George Washington University took over the space.
DC Inventory: March 3, 1979
National Register: December 8, 1976
National Historic Landmark: December 8, 1976
Within George Washington University/Old West End Historic District
]]>This architecturally cohesive residential row, gradually developed between 1831 and 1896, illustrates the evolution of vernacular building in DC in the 19th century. Its human scale and textural diversity have a major design impact on Pennsylvania Avenue west of the White House, relating nearby residential areas and other historic buildings to the avenue, and underlining the historic importance of the avenue as a link between the Federal City and Georgetown. The buildings and facades were incorporated into a new building between 1980 and 1981.
One historic site within this block is the Joseph Cooper House at 2030 I Street NW.
Red Lion Row is now part of the newest iteration of Western Market, which was established around 2018, and has no connection to the historic Western Market.
DC Inventory: January 24, 1977
National Register: August 9, 1977
Within George Washington University/Old West End Historic District
]]>The Steedman-Ray House, built in 1849, was in keeping with the earlier substantial, freestanding brick homes of the neighborhood. Like these predecessors, it was built for a man of stature, a high-ranking Navy captain named Charles Steedman. During the Civil War years, the structure was used as the Office of the Commissary-General of Prisoners, becoming part of the Union Army headquarters housed in the buildings and houses surrounding the White House.
Following the Civil War, it was occupied by a series of socially and politically prominent people. In keeping with its social stature, the building was converted into an elite, private club in 1933. During the late 1960s, George Washington University acquired the property, and it has been a part of their campus since that time, serving as the residence for the university's president.
DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
National Register: September 21, 1990
Within George Washington University/Old West End Historic District
]]>The Joseph Cooper House is a well preserved Greek Revival style house, and is one of the few rare examples of its kind found outside of Georgetown. Built in 1831, it is part of Red Lion Row, which is listed in the National Register, and illustrates the row’s oldest buildings. In the early 1980s, the facade of the building was incorporated into a new complex, one that has received criticisms as it indulges in “Architectural surrealism,” in the context that it takes the historical facade of the building and places it against the modern style of steel-and-glass office buildings. However, the facade of the Cooper House, along with the other historic buildings of Red Lion Row, are what defines these historic landmarks.
Although the Joseph Cooper House and Red Lion Row are now part of the newest iteration of Western Market, which was established around 2018, they have no connection to the historic Western Market.
DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
Within George Washington University/Old West End Historic District
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