Before 1930, some DC parks contained sheds to store equipment. The extant facilities from that era, however, include only buildings that were later repurposed for recreation use. But park administrators now needed facilities that could accommodate…

Roosevelt High School was founded in 1890 as Business High School, then DC’s only institution devoted to instruction in business. The co-educational and segregated school had an itinerant early history until it moved into its first purpose-built…

The rapid development of Petworth in the three decades after 1900 meant that it needed new schools. Until the early 1920s, there was only a single elementary school in the neighborhood. Addressing what has been characterized as a crisis in school…

Built in 1931, Lafayette Elementary School accommodated the rapid growth of the suburban community, Chevy Chase. One of several schools of the 1925 five-year plan, this major building campaign intended to relieve overcrowding, but additional…

Built in 1934 and located on what is now the Joy Evans Recreation Center site, the Lincoln Playground Field House is one of the earliest purpose-built public recreation facilities remaining in a District of Columbia park. It is one of a handful of…

The Army and Navy Club was founded in 1885 as the United Service Club. Initially, membership was limited to war veterans, but later extended its membership eligibility to all officers and ex-officers of the Army, Navy, and Marines. By 1891, the club…

Engine Company No. 31 was among the new generation of modern stations built with motorized apparatuses in mind. Arranged principally on one floor, the station was similar in design to Albert L. Harris's (1869-1934) other T-shaped plan, Engine…

The three-story, four-bay-wide Engine Company No. 16 is often referred to as the "big house," since it is the largest of the city's firehouses and the only one with four apparatus bays. The building became the new home to Engine Company No. 16,…

Engine Company No. 29, also known as the Palisades firehouse, was the city’s first one-story firehouse and one of two prototype Colonial Revival firehouses dating from 1925. In that year, the fire department completed its conversion to all-motorized…