Designed by Mihran Mesrobian in 1931 for Max Gorin, the president of the Southern Construction Company, Sedgwick Gardens is a significant Art Deco building. Mesrobian designed many significant buildings in Washington, including the Hay-Adams Hotel, Carlton Hotel, and Wardman Tower — the latter of which also includes a rare interior designation.

The building also features a similarly elaborate interior. The lobby itself cost about half a million dollars, with more than two dozen pillars specially imported from Italy, each individually hand painted, glazed and baked. A marble fountain in the center was designed to be stocked with shimmering goldfish, and expensive dark-stained wood characterized the lobby's furniture and the reception desk.

All of Sedgwick Gardens' 116 units feature sun porches and bay windows, and larger apartments even included two bathrooms, considered an incredible luxury during the 1930s. Promotional brochures advertised the building's air conditioning unit, a complex cooling system that used pumps to circulate water through the building to carry unwanted August heat up and out through the roof. Combining Art Deco motifs with Byzantine and Moorish influence, Sedgwick Gardens is a transition from the medieval revival styles of the 1920s to the more explicitly Art Deco buildings of the 1930s.

DC Inventory: May 28, 2015

National Register: February 23, 2016

Within Cleveland Park Historic District

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Built in 1928, the Wardman Park Annex peers onto the road below from its hilltop site at the intersection of Woodley Road and Connecticut Avenue NW.

Its height—140 feet above street level—has made it a landmark along Connecticut Avenue since its erection and provides its residents with spectacular views across Rock Creek Park. The structure is composed of four eight-story wings radiating, spoke-like, from a central octagonal tower. The arrangement provides all rooms with exterior views and gives the building its distinctive cruciform shape.

The Annex was designed by Mihran Mesrobian, an architect in the firm of builder Harry Wardman. Mesrobian designed many significant buildings in Washington, including the Hay-Adams Hotel, Carlton Hotel, and Sedgwick Gardens — the latter of which also includes a rare interior designation. Mesrobian used English Colonial Revival details in contrasting white wood and stone to ornament the eight nearly identical facades of his red brick building. The choice of style, colors, materials, and the radiating wing design were part of a conscious effort to blend the new building into the main red brick hotel building that had been erected by Wardman between 1917 and 1918 immediately to the west.

Initially added to the National Register in 1984, recent amendments in 2019 have expanded the boundaries of the landmarked site to include the interior lobby and the entrance piers that first welcomed guests to the hotel in the early 20th century.

DC Inventory: January 5, 1979

DC Inventory (Amendment, including interior designation of lobby): November 15, 2018

National Register: January 31, 1984

National Register (Boundary Increase): May 15, 2019

National Register (Additional Documentation): May 17, 2019

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Cathedral Mansions, a grand garden-style apartment building with over 400 units, was one of the first buildings constructed by Harry Wardman after D.C.'s 1920 zoning laws changed. Built in the Classical Revival style, the three buildings that make up Cathedral Mansions contains open landscaping meant to blend the man-made structures with the natural scenery found in the city.

With cities like New York and D.C. creating new zoning laws requiring open space in residential buildings, the grand garden building allowed for developers to continue to create larger apartment complexes while also retaining the natural landscape of their neighborhoods. Cathedral Mansions contained three separate buildings, with each having similar but distinct architecture that complemented one another. The buildings furthered the ability for more people to live and work in the city, with its location on Connecticut Avenue NW making it an optimal stop for the city's streetcar system. With the ability to commute using public transportation, apartment buildings like Cathedral Mansions became essential to creating "apartment corridors" where construction boomed during this time, especially after World War I concluded. Its success with the new zoning laws also made it an ideal location for future development in the area, with many buildings following suit in construction and design.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Cathedral Mansions North and Center were separately purchased and remodeled by different developers; Cathedral Mansions South was also purchased in the 1960s, but did not undergo the same level of remodeling as the others. Today, the buildings have a mixture of both commercial and residential units.

DC Inventory: May 17, 1989

National Register: September 9, 1994

This site is included on the D.C. Apartment Buildings tour as an example of a Grand Garden apartment building.

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The Carlton Hotel was designed by architect Mihran Mesrobian (1889-1975) and built in 1926 by developer Harry Wardman (1872-1938). Designed in the Beaux-Arts style, this eight-story hotel at 16th and K streets NW is a significant example of this monumental architectural style that was popular in the early decades of the 20th century and was used for many important buildings, from banks to courthouses. Mesrobian designed many significant buildings in Washington, including the Hay-Adams Hotel, Wardman Tower, and Sedgwick Gardens — the latter of which includes a rare interior designation. Due to the Great Depression, Wardman was forced to sell the hotel in 1930. The building then functioned as office space for the White House during World War II and the years of the Truman Administration (1945-1953). The hotel was sold in 1953 to the Sheraton Hotels brand, which renamed the hotel the Sheraton-Carlton Hotel. The Sheraton-Carlton closed in 1986 for extensive renovations. After reopening in 1988, the hotel’s name reverted to the Carlton Hotel. In 1999, it was renamed The St. Regis. DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)