In 1982, a joint venture between Plenty International (a commune on 16th St NW) and CARECEN (Central American Refugee Center) launched a joint venture to provide bilingual medical care to the undocumented immigrants who were pouring into DC (for…

Founded in 1891, the Potomac Electric Company merged with the Washington Railway and Electric Company to become the Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO) in 1902. In 1907, PEPCO established a new central generating power plant along Benning Road,…

Named for Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806), the Black surveyor who worked with Andrew Ellicott (1754-1820) in surveying DC, the Banneker Recreation Center was the premier Black recreation center in a period when DC municipal facilities were segregated.…

The three-story structure was completed while the neighborhood was transitioning from a wealthy suburban enclave to an area of moderately priced row houses and apartment buildings. The modestly appointed building would have appealed to middle income…

As one of the first of a new series of high-style firehouses created in the eclectic period between the late 1890s and World War I, Old Engine Company No. 11 stood as an expression of civic pride and as a testament to the importance of the Fire…

Built in 1928, Trinity Towers is a significant example of noted DC architect Harvey Warwick’s (1893-1972) Gothic Moderne-styled apartment building. Planned as a large, urban apartment building on the Fourteenth Street streetcar line, Trinity Towers…

Completed in 1924, the Tivoli Theatre is the only theater still standing in DC by Thomas White Lamb (1871-1942), the leading theater architect of the Golden Age of motion picture palaces. The theater reflects Italian Renaissance revival and…

Erected in 1922, this block-long, temple-inspired structure was designed as one of the first branches of the Riggs National Bank, which foreshadowed the nationwide expansion of the banking industry following deregulatory measures passed in 1927. The…

The Inter-American Defense Board headquarters, located at 2600 Sixteenth Street NW, is a monumental Venetian late Gothic Revival residence constructed in 1905 as part of socialite and developer Mary Foote Henderson’s (1841-1931) plan to create a…

Park Tower illustrates the significant effort expended at the beginning of the twentieth century to develop Sixteenth Street as a prestigious avenue; this was a fashionable address for congressmen, professionals, and other notables during the…