The Hebrew Home for the Aged was constructed in 1925 to provide social support for destitute Jews, many of whom were immigrants who neither spoke nor understood English. The Hebrew Home, located in what was at the time considered the northern fringe of Washington, DC, was built to serve Washington’s growing Jewish community, particularly in the nearby Columbia Heights, Petworth, and Park View neighborhoods.
In 1922, the board of directors of the Washington Hebrew Home for the Aged announced their intentions to move the Home from the Shaw neighborhood to their newly purchased site on Spring Road between 10th and 13th Streets, NW, which would include both a residential facility and a hospital. Construction commenced in June 1924 to the designs of noted architect Appleton P. Clark, Jr., who planned the building to be erected in phases. The building was to have a central synagogue flanked by symmetrical residential and hospital wings. However, only the westernmost portion of Clark’s design was realized when the Home opened in 1925 with 35 beds for residents.
The building was subsequently expanded between 1951 and 1953 to the designs of Washington architect William St. Cyr Barrington. In 1940, the Jewish Social Service Agency was constructed to the west of the Hebrew Home to the designs of Washington architect Julius Wenig. The Hebrew Home for the Aged moved to a new site in 1968, at which point the building was sold to the DC government, who used it as a mental health facility for years before the building fell vacant in 2009.
Since 2020, the former Hebrew Home for the Aged and surrounding site have been redeveloped and now include mixed-income and affordable housing. The historic building was rehabilitated into The Appleton at Spring Flats — the new name being a reference to the building's architect. The award-winning adaptive reuse project was designed by Wiencek + Associates Architects + Planners. The Appleton houses 88 apartment units for senior citizens. New buildings were constructed on the surrounding site: The Robeson at Spring Flats, an 87-unit apartment building, and The Rows at Spring Flats, ten town homes along Spring Road.
DC Inventory: May 22, 2014
National Register: July 25, 2014
]]>The George M. Lightfoot House was built as a residence in 1892 for Frederick Bex, a carriage maker in the small crossroads village of Brightwood in what was then still referred to as Washington County in the District of Columbia. The house was purchased in 1917 by George M. Lightfoot, a professor at Howard University, who resided in the home from 1933 until his death in 1947. Although George M. Lightfoot is not the original owner and builder, the house is named for him due to his associations with the house and the African American community, and due to his family's longtime ownership of the property.
The Lightfoot House is a rare survivor of a rural Brightwood community once characterized by summer and weekend estates and manors. Frederick Bex, an English-born carriage maker and inventor, contracted to have the house built in 1892. The property was located at the foot of Vinegar Hill, a community of African Americans descended from free people of color and probably from “contrabands” who found work at nearby Fort Stevens during the Civil War. As early as 1917, Howard University professor George M. Lightfoot owned the property. Shortly after he moved to the house in 1931, Lightfoot made it a salon for national and international visitors, including giants of the African American intelligentsia: W.E.B. DuBois, Carter Woodson, Alain Locke, Arthur Schomberg, and a young Ralph Bunche.
The house is a mix of High Victorian eclecticism that includes Second Empire and Moorish flourishes and is notable for its central oriel tower. George Lightfoot died in 1947, and his descendants still live in the house.
DC Inventory: June 27, 2013
National Register: January 15, 2014
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