The Brodhead-Bell-Morton mansion just northeast of Scott Circle is architecturally significant for its grand Beaux-Arts style. It speaks to a time — the turn of the 20th century — when Massachusetts Avenue NW, 16th Street, and the nearby Dupont Circle neighborhood were a center of Washington's wealth. Although it was originally designed by John Fraser and constructed in the late-1870s/early-1880s, it was heavily remodeled in 1912 and the one-time Queen Anne style home is no longer recognizable.
John Russell Pope, a highly-regarded architect of the period, designed the remodel. Pope designed many DC buildings that are now historic landmarks. Most famously, he designed the Jefferson Memorial, as well as the National Archives, National Gallery of Art, Constitution Hall, and the Scottish Rite Temple.
At 1500 Rhode Island Avenue NW, Pope designed a four-story, trapezoidal mansion, with a porte-cochere and round arched windows. The building has limestone cladding, and a notable cornice and balustered parapet. There are other intricate details, such as quoins on the first-floor and a carved shell on the facade's third-floor.
The name of the mansion is a reference to the original owners, John T. and Jessie Willis Brodhead, and subsequent owners, Alexander Graham Bell (inventor) and Levi P. Morton (Vice President, 1889-93). Vice President Morton is credited with hiring Pope for the mansion's remodel. Prior to the building's commercial use, various other important individuals lived here, including a congressman, Russian ambassador, and secretary of state.
From 1940 to 2016, it was occupied by the American Coatings Association (the trade associaiton had various names over the decades). It was then purchased and restored by the nation of Hungary, and the former mansion is now the Embassy of Hungary. During the restoration, a wall was added to the east elevation.
DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
National Register: October 14, 1987
]]>This lot in Kalorama was vacant until 1908, when Martha S. Tucker built her house at 2320 S Street NW, designed by Wood, Donn and Deming. The firm, founded in 1902, designed a number of important Washington buildings, including the Masonic Temple (1908) and the Union Trust Building (1907). From 1910 to 1916, the house at 2320 S Street was owned and occupied by the Samuel Hills.
Between 1912 and 1913, George Hewitt Myers built his home at 2310 S Street NW, using designs by John Russell Pope, one of the United States' most distinguished architects. The Myers House is a product of Pope's early career, when he was designing a number of refined country and townhouses, but Pope is best known for his later, more monumental structures, such as the National Archives Building, the National Gallery of Art, and the Jefferson Memorial.
The two houses, which once housed the Textile Museum, are elaborate Colonial Revival designs. They illustrate the popularity of the Colonial Revival style in the early-20th century and are illustrative of that age's desire for architectural order and symmetry.
The Textile Museum closed its Kalorama location in 2013, and relocated to The George Washington University campus in 2015. The Tucker and Myers houses are once again private residences.
DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
National Register: August 14, 1973
]]>Built in 1915, the House of the Temple is the headquarters of the Supreme Council of the Southern Jurisdiction of the Thirty-Third Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Rite of Freemasonry. One of the most monumental buildings within the eclectic Sixteenth Street Historic District, the Temple of the Scottish Rite was designed by John Russell Pope — who also designed the National Archives and the Jefferson Memorial. Pope used the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, as his inspiration for the temple. Outside, guarding the temple doors, is a pair of monumental sphinxes, representing wisdom and power. The temple is laced with symbolism in its design and decor, much of which requires close attention to detail and may not be obvious to non-Masons.
The temple’s library, which was the first public library in DC, contains one of the world’s largest collections of materials on and by Scottish poet and Freemason Robert Burns.
DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
]]>The congregation of the National City Christian Church organized in 1843. A physician and pioneering Stone-Campbell Movement missionary, James Turner Barclay (1807-1874) helped to organize the congregation. Designed in 1930 by architect John Russell Pope (1874-1937), the National City Christian Church mirrors classic forms adapted from English Georgian churches. However, the Church itself represents the neoclassical style and features a well-proportioned tower. Two additions to the church have been added, one in 1952 and the other in 1985. Stained glass windows in the church commemorate two presidents associated with the denomination, James Garfield and Lyndon Johnson. DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
]]>Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, US government agencies and branches were responsible for maintaining their own documents, often resulting in the loss and destruction of records. In 1934, Congress created the National Archives to centralize federal record keeping, and appointed Robert D. W. Connor (1878-1950) as the first Archivist of the United States. While independent from the US government, the National Archives preserves historical documents and government records. The National Archives also maintains and publishes legally authentic and authoritative copies of acts of Congress, presidential directives, and federal regulations, as well as Electoral College votes. Additionally, the National Archives maintains public access to those records including the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence. Researchers can also view documents in the Research Room that are not on display. The seventh building to be constructed in the Federal Triangle from 1931 to 1937, the National Archives Building is a monumental structure designed in the twentieth century neoclassical manner by John Russell Pope (1874-1937). The Archives Building occupies a dominant position in the Federal Triangle. DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)National Register: May 27, 1971National Historic Landmark: December 11, 2023
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