Three years into the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln petitioned Congress to build DC’s first Naval hospital. Built by July 1866, the Old Naval Hospital provided medical services to American veterans in the US Navy. The hospital served sick and wounded seamen until 1906, when the facility moved to a new building on Twenty-Third and E Streets NW, known as the “New Naval Hospital.” From 1907 to 1911, the Old Naval Hospital functioned as the Hospital Corps Training School, where sailors learned nursing and hygiene. In 1911, the hospital transformed into a care facility for veterans of the Civil and Spanish-American wars, an emergency hospital, and a temporary Naval Reserve headquarters, at one point. By 1922, the Old Naval Hospital found a new purpose as the Temporary Home for Union Ex-Soldiers, a private institution providing lodging for veterans fighting pension claims in court. In 1963, the federal government transferred the control of the Old Naval Hospital to DC. The building served as a meeting place for several social service organizations, including the headquarters for the organizing efforts to establish Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a national holiday. Over time, the facility fell into disrepair and by 1998, the building was vacant. By 2000, a group of concerned neighbors formed the Friends of the Old Naval Hospital to restore the historic site, research the site’s history and multiple uses, and find a long-term occupant for the building representative of the community’s needs. Hill Center now occupies the building, an educational center and gathering place for community residents dedicated to cultural enrichment, education, and civic engagement. DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)National Register: May 3, 1974 (amended May 20, 2009)
]]>Built in 1928, the one-story commercial Mott Motors building typifies the small automobile dealerships that fostered the transformation of traditional retail streets into automobile-oriented shopping strips. Designed by the noted local firm Upman & Adams, the storefront is an eclectic Italianate composition, executed in textured limestone with Moorish entrances, a tile roof, and battlemented cornice. Originally constructed as an automobile showroom and repair facility, the building has a flat roof with red terracotta tiles. In 1943, the building was converted into Plymouth Theater, a cinema catering principally to the Black community—the first such facility in the Northeast neighborhood. After renovations, the Plymouth Theater had a concrete deck and concrete beams supported by brick piers along the masonry party walls. The theater closed in 1952 and hosted a number of businesses thereafter. More recently in 2001, the car dealer turned theater became the H Street Playhouse, seeking to develop and revitalize the H Street commercial corridor; however, the H Street Playhouse closed in 2012. Today, the building serves a new purpose as a CrossFit gym. DC Inventory: April 25, 2002National Register: March 3, 2004
]]>Engine Company No. 20 was the first major public structure built in Tenleytown in 1900. At the time, Tenleytown was at the edge of Washington, DC's development. Soon after, the nearby residential subdivisions of Armsleigh Park (1892) and American University Park (1897) expanded. The firehouse signaled the absorption of the former crossroads settlement into a growing neighborhood and the eventual development of the community.
Designed by architect Leon Dessez (1858-1918), Engine Company No. 20 is Italianate Revival in style. The façade has glazed buff brick with overhanging scrolled eaves, a terra cotta tile roof, and an expressed hose tower. With the addition of a one-story annex by Snowden Ashford (1866-1927), Engine Company No. 20 became the second motorized station in the city in 1913.
DC Inventory: February 7, 2002
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