In 1879, Mary Baker Eddy founded the Christian Science church, and it quickly spread to DC in 1895. After hosting their religious services in members’ homes and other denominations’ churches, the congregation decided to construct its own building. The resulting church at 1770 Euclid Street NW was completed in 1912 and served the congregation well into the 1970s. Designed in the Neoclassical style by architectural firm Marsh & Peter, under the direction of Edwin D. Ryerson, the building provided numerous benefits for the Christian Science church. The congregation chose the Washington Heights site near 18th Street and Columbia Road because of its proximity to the streetcar lines and downtown DC; Christian Science had mainly appealed to the middle-class, and the church’s convenient location made it easier for congregants to attend services. The congregation thrived into the 1950s, but urban flight took a toll on the original congregation’s population. However, after a period of loss, the arrival of a growing Latino population in the area helped the church grow once again in the 1970s. The church offered Spanish services monthly, then weekly, to accommodate its new members. The church left this building in favor of their other, smaller property across the street in the late 1970s, leaving the building unoccupied. After almost 25 years, though, a new developer has transformed the former church into a hotel, The LINE DC, purchasing the building in 2013 and opening in late 2017.

DC Inventory: October 2, 2014

National Register: January 27, 2015

Within Washington Heights Historic District

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The Bureau of Engraving & Printing found its first home working in the attic and basement of the Treasury Building at 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. In 1878, safety concerns and the growth of the Bureau forced Congress to provide a new space. The Bureau’s first building was completed in 1880. The continued expansion of the federal government and the nation’s increasing population levels resulted in the Bureau outgrowing their first building by 1906. A new, larger building was constructed in 1914 on 14th Street SW and remains, to this day, the central building of the Bureau.

Following World War I, the Bureau again expanded in response to growing American printing and financial needs. In 1935, Congress granted funds for an Annex, which was completed in 1938.

The Bureau of Engraving & Printing continues to produce paper currency and other documents at this building near the National Mall, as well as a facility in Fort Worth, Texas.

DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)

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In 1898, the Spanish-American War exposed the U.S. military's weaknesses through uncoordinated Army units and internal issues of communication. Despite America's ultimate victory, Secretary of War Elihu Root and President Theodore Roosevelt called for a complete reorganization of military education. Thus, the idea for a "national war college" was born.

Congress officially approved funding for the Army War College in 1904, and by the 1910s the school had evolved into a model of military education. Built in 1907 on the site of the former Washington Arsenal (DC's main armory from 1790 through the War of 1812), the college is a captivating example of Neo-Classical Architecture. The building was designed by the renowned architectural firm McKim, Mead & White. The school relied on analysis of previous global conflicts, and the implementation of "war games" to teach tactical strategy. The Army War College also played a role in drafting national defense legislation prior to America's entry into World War I.

Despite the college's initial success, Congress disbanded the institution at the onset of World War II--yet the institution was re-established as the National War College in 1946. The name change was intended to indicate the "national" intelligence at the school, as individuals from the State Department and Central Intelligence Agency had been recruited as students and faculty. The National War College continues to operate as a military education institution, with the mission to "educate future leaders of the Armed Forces, Department of State, and other civilian agencies for high-level policy, command and staff responsibilities by conducting a senior-level course of study in national security strategy."

The college was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1972. It is inaccessible to the public, as it is located on an active military base, Fort McNair.

DC Register: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)

National Register: November 28, 1972

National Historic Landmark: November 28, 1972

Within Fort McNair Historic District

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For over 100 years, the American Theater (also known more commonly as the Sylvan Theater) operated as an entertainment hub and community anchor in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of DC. Designed by prominent local architect Nicholas T. Haller, the Neo-Classical Revival style building is located adjacent to the intersection of Rhode Island Avenue and First Street NW.

The American Theater opened in 1914 in response to national and local desires for spaces built intentionally for viewing films. The motion picture business had grown immensely since the first theater in the District opened in a former storefront in 1906. In the years between 1909 and 1914, fifty-eight new movie theaters opened in the nation’s capital.

In 1930, the company rebranded as the Sylvan Theater, named for manager Sylvan V. Dietz, a prominent local deeply connected to the decade’s film scene. Outside of providing a space for films, the theater hosted local community activities (Boy Scouts events, fundraisers, civic rallies, etc.) from its earliest days.

The Sylvan survived the local decline of movie theater popularity in the 1950s, but closed in 1965 due to a succession of untenable mortgages. The property was sold at bankruptcy auctions in 1967 and 1969 before the renovation of the space by the Back Alley Theater (BAT). Begun in a Capitol Hill garage and literal alleyway, the BAT offered theater programs and educational workshops in playwriting for audience members. Established in 1967, the BAT formed in response to the complete lack of a suitable Black theater program or physical location. With the help of a $5,000 grant from the Institute for Policy Studies, the Back Alley Theater Company renovated the run-down Sylvan theater and offered its first production in 1971.

While the Sylvan had been built for the explicit purpose of viewing films, BAT members reimagined the space, breaking down barriers between audience and performers through the construction of a rough-hewn stage close to seated attendees. The energy was entirely unique and described as such:

“The sound of gospel music fills the air, and from that point on, the audience is as active as any sanctified church congregation during a revival meeting. Foot-patting and hand clapping, this black audience shows its appreciation by participating…It has been said that to be successful black theatre must encompass all the ‘pleasure and passion’ of the church.”

The BAT left the Sylvan by 1973, but the influence it had on the surrounding community was enormous. Research indicates that the BAT’s productions may well have been some of the earliest stage shows in DC to showcase cultural expressions of Black pride that accompanied the political empowerment of the African American community in the 1960s and 1970s. The Back Alley Theater was Washington’s first African American theater company that possessed its own commercial theater, and operated it as a center of community pride and cultural regeneration.

After the BAT’s departure, the Sylvan Theater became a rental space once more. A series of businesses have occupied the building and it continues to hold various stores and restaurants inside its walls today.

DC Inventory: April 25, 2019

Within Bloomingdale Historic District

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Arlington Memorial Bridge is a low, Neoclassical style bridge that was designed by the architecture firm of McKim, Mead & White, and opened in 1932. Nine broad arches cross the river; roadways pass through additional segmental-arched openings at either end. Its related architectural, engineering sculptural, and landscape features are significant as important elements in the Neoclassical urban design of Washington, DC, as it evolved during the first third of the 20th century. Successfully integrated within Washington's grand plan, the bridge composition enhances the monumental city as well as the riverside.

Widely regarded as Washington's most beautiful bridge, Memorial Bridge symbolically links North and South in its alignment between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial. The bridge axis is carried on Memorial Avenue across the Boundary Channel Bridge to the Virginia shore. There it terminates at the Arlington Hemicycle, keystone of the grand renaissance gateway to Arlington National Cemetery, with Arlington House rising as the focal point on the hill above.

DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)

National Register: April 4, 1980

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The years immediately after World War I were a period of intense development of neighboring residential and commercial blocks, capped by the opening of the nearby Tivoli Theatre in 1924. The influx of residents was accompanied by a wave of church-building. Within five years of its construction, five other architecturally-distinguished churches were built within a few blocks of the Columbia Heights Christian Church. The church’s construction for a recently-formed congregation was also a significant development in the growth of the Disciples of Christ denomination in Washington, DC.

In 1958, the church was purchased by the Temple Church of God in Christ, whose sanctuary at Sixth and H Street SW was demolished during the Southwest urban renewal project. The church is thus associated with a major theme in the development of the District of Columbia; the successful effort of a religious and cultural institution, involuntarily displaced from its historic home in a community destroyed by urban renewal, to maintain its identity, as well as to take root in and influence social life in a new part of the city. The church is also significant for its association with the influential support of the national Church of God in Christ (COGIC), its congregation, and pastor for the local and national civil rights movement. It also has significant association with congregation-sponsored programs that addressed the Columbia Heights neighborhood’s social and spiritual needs in the economically-distressed period of de-urbanization and the aftermath of the civil disorders that followed the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King in April 1968. It is further associated with the growth of the Church of God in Christ both nationally and locally as the first of the city’s 30 COGIC congregations.

DC Inventory: April 28, 2016

National Register: September 18, 2017

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The Terminal Refrigerating & Warehouse Company building is a monumental, Neoclassical style building, constructed in 1923 to house cold and dry storage warehouses and an ice manufacturing plant, as well as the company’s offices. In 1983, the Terminal Building was renovated and expanded to the east for use by the Washington Design Center. In more recent years, the building was rehabilitated to house the Museum of the Bible.

The building is notable as a model interwar industrial building. Stationed directly adjacent to a rail line and viaduct, the industrial building was carefully situated to take advantage of advances in transportation technology.

DC Inventory: July 24, 2014

National Register: August 24, 2014

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The District of Columbia War Memorial was constructed in 1931, following a five-year-long campaign by the DC community to raise money for a memorial that would honor the 26,000 residents who served (and the 499 who died) in World War I. It was designed by local architects and planned to encourage public remembrance of those who served.

For many Americans, the “War to End All Wars” was the first time in the country’s history where soldiers were sent abroad to fight. Millions of Americans served their country, and by the end of the war, it was estimated that the U.S. suffered an estimated 320,000 casualties (204,000 wounded and 116,000 dead). In the years following the war, thousands of memorials were erected all over the world. A month after the war’s end, Washingtonians were already submitting letters to the United States Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) to design and construct a memorial for the city’s veterans and fallen soldiers.

The design selected for the memorial came from Frederick H. Brooke. He was a local architect based in DC and a veteran of WWI himself. His plan was “a circular, open-air Corinthian temple surrounded by a stepped base” with a domed roof. The columns sit atop a raised base with two sets of steps leading up to the floor level of the structure. It was designed with the dual purpose of being both a war memorial and a bandstand—it is large enough to accommodate an eighty-piece band. The memorial is surrounded by a circular terrace of blue stone paving with parallel blue stone paths bordering lawn panels, extending north to Ash Road and south to Independence Avenue. The structure is surrounded by open lawn, flanked on the east and west sides by Ash Woods, a large grove of trees that consists primarily of elm, maple, beech, and oak.

Almost 100 years after the dedication of the DC War Memorial, a national World War I Memorial was officially completed in Pershing Park in 2024.

DC Inventory: May 23, 2013

National Register: July 11, 2014

Within the National Mall and East and West Potomac Parks historic districts

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Located in Scott Circle, the Daniel Webster Memorial honors the multi-faceted legacy of the famous statesman. A practicing lawyer, orator, senator and congressman of New Hampshire, Webster’s memorial is one of a few in DC that honors a statesman.

Donated by Stilson Hutchins, the founder of the Washington Post, the bronze statue rests on a granite pedestal designed in a Neoclassical style by Italian sculptor Gaetano Trentanove. Dedicated in 1900 for Webster’s 118th birthday, the memorial’s pedestal features some key moments in his career, but does not capture all of the important events Webster took part in in his life. Born in New Hampshire, Webster became one of the nation’s leading lawyers, taking part in three foundational U.S. Supreme Court cases while in practice. In both McCulloch v. Maryland and Gibbons v. Ogden, Webster successfully argued the cases that established federal and state governments’ powers. In Dartmouth v. Woodward, Webster’s win created precedent for contract clauses applying to both public and private institutions. In addition to his legal career, Webster’s oratory skills added to his fame; the Hayne-Webster Debates of 1830 and his speech at the Bunker Hill Monument attest to his skills in the reliefs featured on the pedestal of the memorial.

The memorial stands as a tribute to Webster’s legacy and impact on the early history of the United States, as well as the artistic style of a Neoclassical sculpture completed during this time. While it does not speak to every accomplishment of Webster’s, it does call attention to his influence, as well as the broader importance of this time period.

DC Inventory: February 22, 2007

National Register: October 12, 2007

Within Sixteenth Street Historic District

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When Alexander Graham Bell received his first telephone patent in 1876, the device was still something of a curiosity. Within two years, though, the first telephone exchanges were opening as the device caught on. Bell, newly famous, moved to DC in the winter of 1878. For his invention of the telephone, the French government named Bell the 1880 winner of the Volta Prize, which came with an award of 50,000 francs. With this money, Bell established the Volta Laboratory, originally based out of a since-demolished building on L Street.

In 1885, the laboratory relocated to the carriage house behind Bell’s father’s Georgetown home at 1527 35th Street, NW. Although the telephone remains Bell’s best-known innovation, he continued to develop new inventions throughout his years in DC. With the Volta Laboratory, Bell developed the photophone, a device that could transmit sound via rays of light in a precursor to today’s fiber-optic telecommunications technologies. He also worked to refine the induction balance, the invention with which he had attempted and failed to save President Garfield’s life in 1881. Bell had tried to use the early metal detector to find the bullet Garfield’s assassin had fired into his body, but the metal springs of Garfield’s bed had distracted the machine and thwarted Bell’s efforts. After Garfield’s death, Bell continued to refine the device. He also developed the audiometer, used to test hearing. Before turning his attention to inventing, Bell had worked as a teacher for Deaf students, and his passion for Deaf education continued throughout his life.

In 1887, the Volta Association sold its various record-related patents, and Bell used his share of the profits to found the Volta Bureau “for the increase and diffusion of knowledge relating to the Deaf.” Originally, the Volta Bureau operated out of a smaller office at 1334 Q Street NW, but as its work increased, the need for a separate space arose. In 1893, Bell built a new Volta Bureau building at 1537 35th Street NW, opposite his father’s house and the Volta Laboratory. The Neoclassical yellow brick and sandstone building was designed by the Boston-based architectural firm Peabody & Stearns. Helen Keller, then 12 years old and a prior acquaintance of Bell's, broke the sod for the new building.

In 1908, the Volta Bureau merged with the American Association for the Promotion of the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf (now known as the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing), and Bell dedicated much of his time before his 1922 death to the organization, serving as its president and donating upwards of $300,000. The association still works out of the original Volta Bureau building, although the address is now 3417 Volta Place NW. The Volta Laboratory, however, has been converted to a single-family residence.

During Bell’s time there, both stories of the L-shaped brick building had featured full length windows topped with segmental arches, as well as a façade with a brick parapet rising above the second story on the street side. The exterior brick of the house has since been covered with stucco and the windows reduced to a third of their original size.

DC Inventory (Volta Laboratory): June 19, 1973 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)

DC Inventory (Volta Bureau): March 3, 1979

National Register (Volta Bureau): November 28, 1972

National Historic Landmark (Volta Bureau): November 28, 1972

Within Georgetown Historic District

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