This two-story rowhouse within the Mount Pleasant Historic District was designed by prolific DC architect Waddy B. Wood (Wood, Donn & Deming) and constructed by John H. Nolan for self-described “architectural sculptor” John Joseph Earley (1881-1945) and his family. John J. Earley lived here for over 30-years, from 1911 to 1942. During this time, he led a successful career working on numerous projects around DC and the nation. He is best known for his work with architectural mosaic concrete – specifically, the “Earley Process” for formulating colorful aggregate-based concrete.
The Earley Family was known for its artistic work in 19th century England and Ireland. John J. Earley’s grandfather, John Farrington Earley, and great uncle, Thomas Earley, were artisans in Birmingham, England. Both John and Thomas later relocated to Dublin, where the firm of Earley & Powells produced decorative arts (mainly for churches), from altars and pulpits to stained glass windows and tombstones. John Farrington Earley’s son, James Farrington Earley, distinguished himself as a sculptor at an early age. In 1880, James and his wife Mary emigrated to the United States and the following year John J. Earley was born in New York City. Within a decade, James and his family moved to DC where he established his firm focused on stone carving.
John J. Earley soon apprenticed under his father James. In the 1890s and 1900s, James contributed to work at the Franciscan Monastery, Saint Patrick’s Church, and the new Willard Hotel, as well as the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. In 1906, James, at only 49 years old, tragically died of typhoid fever and bequeathed the firm to John.
The following year, John J. Earley designed a new headquarters for the firm (see John J. Earley Office and Studio). From 1907 to 1936, the firm was headquartered at this studio in Foggy Bottom. Through the National Bureau of Standards, John worked on experiments with concrete-coated metallic lath. Working in plaster and stucco, John was hired to clad different features in stucco at the new Meridian Hill Park. Initially, his work did not meet the expectations of the Commission of Fine Arts (CFA). In turn, he developed his famous process that met CFA’s standards in 1915. This two-stage process included the removal of concrete to reveal the larger aggregate’s color, and the addition of a smaller aggregate as infill.
In addition to his work at Meridian Hill Park, John J. Earley and his studio worked on many high-profile projects while he was living on Lamont Street. This included work at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, the Franciscan Monastery, Mullen Library at The Catholic University, the U.S. Department of Justice Building, the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple, the Parthenon in Nashville, and the Baháʼí House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois. John moved out of the rowhouse in Mount Pleasant in 1942 and died in 1945.
The John J. Earley House was built as infill, as it was constructed slightly later than the rest of the block. This is visible from Lamont Street, as the house has a different architectural style than the adjacent houses. Designed by Waddy B. Wood in the Italian Renaissance Revival style, the primary façade (north elevation) of the custom-designed house is clad in brick masonry laid in an English cross bond pattern. The rowhouse is three-bays wide.
A center walkway reaches from the sidewalk to the house’s entry porch. The concrete entry porch has a lower landing, short flight of stairs, and an upper landing at the front entrance, which is on the east side of the façade. The first floor features three round arches, with the entrance in the east arch, and windows in the center and west arches. These three arched openings all include fanlights and French windows. The center and west arches have concrete balustrades. The second-floor’s three windows are rectangular and have iron balcony railings.
A terra cotta tile roof overhangs the front façade. The cornice is composed of diamond-shaped concrete and is supported by concrete brackets. Below the cornice is a shelf with a braided concrete rim, round brick arches, and concrete brackets. Within the arches are shells that are both decorative and practical, as they once provided ventilation to the house’s attic. Below the shells and between the brackets are diamond-shaped terra cotta tiles.
Most of the first floor interior – the entrance hall, front parlor, center hall, central atrium, and rear dining room – is included in this designation. The interior’s most prominent space is the two-story atrium, which has a floor composed of bricks and walls of concrete blocks. Originally open-air, it was enclosed in 1915. John J. Earley’s work is most visible in the concrete-walled atrium, and the parlor and dining room's concrete fireplaces.
DC Inventory: February 27, 2025
National Register: May 8, 2025
]]>Located at the corner of 19th and Vernon streets NW, the Old Chinese Legation was only the second purpose-built legation (after the British Embassy) in Washington, DC. The old British Embassy on Connecticut Avenue NW has since been demolished, making the Old Chinese Legation the oldest standing building in DC commissioned and formerly occupied by a foreign government.
The building was constructed during an era of significant geopolitical changes, which encompassed the United States’ rising international status, due to its victory in the Spanish-American War in 1898. During this time, the United States and the Qing Dynasty had a fragile relationship – with diplomatic relations first established in 1844. In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, targeting Chinese immigration to the United States. The following decade, the United States and European powers (as well as Japan) sent troops to China during the Boxer Rebellion, as well as agreed to the Americans’ Open Door Policy, which furthered foreign economic involvement in China.
In 1878, the first Chinese Legation was established on K Street NW in the former home of Governor Alexander Shephard. The legation then moved several times, including a stint at the Stewart Castle on Dupont Circle. In 1902, construction started on the building in Washington Heights, a neighborhood which had first started to develop in the 1890s. Efforts to construct a purpose-built legation building were driven by Minister Wu Ting Fang, who is also credited with selecting the legation building’s architectural style. As quoted in the landmark nomination, “The Chinese minister ‘preferred something American or adaptable to American home life rather than a building of the Chinese type.”
The Old Chinese Legation was designed by prolific Washington architect Waddy B. Wood in an Elizabethan/Jacobean Revival style, an early Washington example of this style. This romantic revival style gives the building a look reminiscent of an English manor house. The building is clad in brick masonry, but also includes limestone and terra cotta ornamentation throughout.
The primary façade (south elevation) facing Vernon Street includes a main entrance with a terra cotta surround, broken segmental pediment, and pilasters. The main entrance is flanked by two-story bays with parapeted gable roofs. Each bay includes a balcony with balustrade. Limestone ornamentation is found throughout the façade, including on the symmetrical limestone porches which extend on both the west and east sides of the building. This elevation, facing Vernon Street, featured the ambassador’s residence. The west elevation along 19th Street once housed the chancery and its offices. It is less ornate than the Vernon Street façade, but features the same stylistic elements.
The residence was constructed to allow for the minister to reside on the second floor, facing Vernon. This was in line with Chinese custom, which dictated that higher-ranking officials, such as a minister, should sleep on a floor above lower-ranking individuals, including secretaries and servants.
The new minister, Liang Cheng, moved into the building – officially the Imperial Chinese Legation – in April 1903. He was replaced by Minister Wu in 1907. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912, the building served as the Legation of the Republic of China from 1912 to 1935.
Minister Alfred Sao-ke Sze, serving in the 1920s and 1930s, would be particularly influential, as he secured American support for China, which was then dealing with Japanese aggression. Japan would end up invading Manchuria in 1931 and continue its encroachment into China through the 1930s and into World War II. Minister Sze also brokered a truce during the “Tong Wars.” When the legation was elevated to embassy status in 1935, Minister Sze became Ambassador Sze, the first Chinese ambassador to the United States. In 1937, the Chinese Ambassador moved to Twin Oaks in Cleveland Park. The building in Washington Heights would continue to house the chancery until 1943, when it moved to the Fahnestock House on Embassy Row.
The Republic of China (Taiwan) sold the property in the early 1960s. During that decade, a parking lot almost replaced the aging building. Luckily, due to opposition, this plan was scrapped and the building was converted into apartments. In 1987, further renovations were completed and the building became condominiums.
DC Inventory: April 25, 2024
National Register: June 17, 2024
Within the Washington Heights Historic District
This site is a part of the Finding Asian American History in Washington DC digital tour.
]]>Constructed between 1902 and 1903, this semi-detached row house was the second to be built in Sheridan Circle and remains architecturally distinct from the neighboring Beaux-Arts mansions. Designed by Washington architect Waddy B. Wood in the Mission/Arts & Crafts style, the four story home is is clad in stucco, and includes large oak doors with handmade accents and a terra cotta tile roof. The interior, which is historically designated, incorporates iron light fixtures, red clay tile, colorful mosaics, and exposed ceiling beams in the Mission/Arts & Crafts style.
The home was built for Alice Pike Barney, an artist, community activist, and cultural crusader for Washington society. Ms. Barney utilized Studio House to host meetings, parties, and fundraising events to improve the artistic and cultural life of Washington, D.C. In her home, she created art, produced theatrical productions, and developed connections between thespians, artists, writers, politicians, and diplomats to boost the artistic inclinations of the expanding city in the early 1900s.
By the mid-1920s, Alice Barney had left Washington for Hollywood, and attempted to sell the house with no avail. She deeded the property to her daughters, who ultimately donated it to the Smithsonian Institution in 1960 to be used as an arts and cultural center. The home remained in use by the museum system for many years, and currently houses the Latvian Embassy.
DC Inventory: December 15, 1994
National Register: April 27, 1995
Within Massachusetts Avenue and Sheridan-Kalorama Historic Districts
]]>Located in the Georgetown Historic District in Northwest Washington, the Capital Traction Company Union Station (Capital Traction) property includes the central structure (also referred to as the Georgetown Car Barn), the adjacent stone retaining wall, and the inset stone stairway used in the 1973 film The Exorcist (colloquially known as the Exorcist Steps).
Developed between 1894 and 1897, this property is historically significant as a streetcar station, storage garage, and turn around for four independently owned streetcar lines in the District. Designed in the Romanesque Revival style by prominent Washington architect Waddy B. Wood, Capital Traction Station was the first of its kind in the District—and initially provided the only cable loop in Washington. The building retains most of its signature elements, such as the arched streetcar entrances, a projecting tower, and the monogrammed pediment labeling the station. Not only did Capital Traction provided a crucial transportation service for residents in Maryland, Virginia, and DC, but it completed a unique feat of engineering. Faced with a steep 60-foot descent from Prospect Street to M Street, the construction of the station required an extensive excavation to remove soil and “rotten rock” from the building site. For this reason, the site may be archeologically valuable and could contain nineteenth century artifacts.
Today, the once bustling hub of transportation remains useful as one of Georgetown University’s educational buildings—and one of DC’s tourist attractions. After the stone stairway’s 1973 appearance in the internationally recognized film The Exorcist, the steps became a prominent destination and well-known tourist stop. In 2015, Mayor Muriel Bowser placed a plaque on the retaining wall to acknowledge the significance of the steps to the District’s tourism industry.
DC Inventory: January 24, 2019
National Register: August 9, 2019
Within Georgetown Historic District
]]>The Cleveland-Emerson Exchange is an impressive and notable Stripped Classical building with Art Deco detailing located on a prominent corner in DC's Tenleytown neighborhood. The limstone-clad building, constructed as a telephone exchange for the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company, is the product of three separate phases of construction, but appears today as one unified and cohesive building. It occupies the site of the area’s first telephone exchange, a small concrete building completed in 1908. Along with the firehouse across Warren Street NW, the building represents a period of suburbanization in the former 19th century village of Tenleytown. The main building fronting Wisconsin Avenue and Warren Street was designed by notable architect Waddy B. Wood (1869-1944) in 1931-32 and built in two phases: 1931-32, during the architect’s lifetime, and circa 1960, well after the architect’s death. Two walls of an earlier buff brick Classical Revival-style building, constructed in 1927, survive at the rear of the main building and are clearly visible from 40th Street.
DC Inventory: November 17, 2016
National Register: September 8, 2017
]]>At the beginning of the twentieth century, Armstrong Manual Training School and M Street High School were the only two high schools in DC that admitted black students. From its founding, Armstrong operated as an important institution and symbol for DC's African American community and helped to improve the quality of life for its students. The school was designed in the Classical Revival style by Waddy B. Wood, an important local architect whose buildings played a significant role in the development of early 20th century Washington.
In the mid-19th century, the District of Columbia emerged as a national model for educating African Americans, and Armstrong is the preeminent example of this educational movement. The school, built between 1900 and 1902, was originally called Manual Training School #2 and was the African American counterpart to Manual Training School #1, which was intended for white students. In 1903, Manual Training School #2 became Armstrong Manual Training School in honor of General Samuel Chapel Armstrong, a white commander of an African American Civil War regiment and founder of the Hampton Institute, attended by Booker T. Washington. Originally, Armstrong Manual Training School had carpentry, machine, foundry, blacksmith, and lathe workshops. Laboratories were provided for chemistry, physics and photographic work. The building also contained seven classrooms, a study hall, and drafting room.
At the end of the 19th century, college preparatory institutions for African Americans came under attack. At this time, Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, led a campaign for vocational training of African Americans. He argued that training in agricultural, technical, and business instruction, as opposed to the arts and humanities, would ensure racial progress. During this period, Anna J. Cooper, the principal of M Street High, successfully resisted the pressure to turn the high school into a trade school. In 1925, the name was changed to Armstrong Technical High School.
Armstrong now houses the Friendship Armstrong Academy, a public charter school.
DC Inventory: May 23, 1996
National Register: August 16, 1996
]]>The Commercial National Bank, also known as the Western Union Building, designed by noted Washington architect Waddy B. Wood in 1917, is an excellent early example of the simplified and stylized classicism that distinguishes some of DC’s most noteworthy early-twentieth century buildings. Commercial National Bank was among the first major buildings in Washington to embody the characteristics of this Stripped Classicism.
The abstract classical vocabulary displayed here in 1917 appeared repeatedly through DC’s architectural landscape in the 1920s and 1930s. However, the originality of Commercial National Bank’s stylized classical vocabulary and the subtlety of its expression makes it unique for this early date. This powerful building marks an important transition from Wood’s earlier, more literal use of traditional architectural forms to the boldness and abstraction of his later buildings.
DC Inventory: July 16, 1986
National Register: October 11, 1991
Within Financial Historic District
]]>Designed by Waddy B. Wood and constructed as the executive headquarters for the Southern Railway Company, one of the most successful railroad conglomerates in the early 20th century U.S., this building is a highly visible remnant of the railroad industry. According to an article in the Washington Post, the official cornerstone laying was complete with Masonic ceremonies and took place on December 20, 1928. Grand Master James T. Gibbs of the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia officiated using the same trowel and gavel that George Washington used in the laying of the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol.
In addition to its association with the railroad industry, the building is also significant for its role in transforming the surrounding area from a residential neighborhood into a bustling commercial district by the early 20th century. The building abuts the Peyser Building, another historic landmark within the historic district.
DC Inventory: February 25, 2016
National Register: April 26, 2016
Within Financial Historic District
]]>Standing near the corner of G and 9th streets NW in the heart of the city, the Victor Building’s construction made it even more convenient for the original owner, Victor Evans, to complete his work. One of the preeminent patent attorneys in the country, Evans had the Victor Building constructed right next to the Old Patent Office. An Italian Renaissance Revival style building, the Victor Building served as Evans’s office for over 20 years until his death in 1931.
The building was completed in 1909, but shortly after, in 1911, Evans expanded the building. Both the original building and its addition were designed by well-known architect Appleton P. Clark Jr. In 1925, the building gained another addition, but this time Evans hired Waddy B. Wood, another influential architect.
Evans had an impressive career as a patent attorney, but he also held interests outside of the law, including an extensive collection of Native American artifacts and exotic animals. His interest in artifacts led him to become an advocate and attorney for Native American tribes, while his passion for animals led him to become a major contributor to the Smithsonian National Zoo. His third hobby, aviation, came from his work as a patent attorney. He became the president of the Rex Smith Aeroplane Company of Washington, in addition to being a major financial contributor to their programs.
DC Inventory: April 15, 1992
]]>Organized in 1899, the Union Trust and Storage Company is one of DC’s earliest trust organizations. Operating both as a storage concern and a trust company, the organization served as a depository for both material and fiduciary resources held by corporations, trustees of estates, and wealthy individuals.
The Union Trust Building is a key structure in the District of Columbia's Financial Historic District. But it holds even greater significance within the larger context of banking architecture, standing as physical evidence of the aspirations and realities of the financial world in the early twentieth century.
This banking house and office structure was designed in the Neoclassical style by the noted Washington architectural firm of Wood, Donn and Deming in 1906. Inspired by the City Beautiful Movement, the building is a product of both its time and the planning conditions unique to the nation’s capital, further illustrating the influences of the federal presence on private design.
DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
National Register: January 19, 1984
Within Financial Historic District
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