Clifton Terrace/ Wardman Courts
Inspired by the garden city movement, Clifton Terrace is a large complex of Classical Revival buildings sited on one of the city’s most important streetcar thoroughfares.
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The Clifton Terrace Apartment Complex, originally known as Wardman Courts, was constructed between 1914 and 1915, during an era of explosive residential growth in DC. The complex was erected on the site of Belmont House, a Queen Anne style mansion of Amzi L. Barber and designed by architect Theophilus P. Chandler. The house was a neighborhood landmark, but it was razed in 1914 for the construction of Clifton Terrace. The expansion followed into interwar period development of the federal government and the increasing popularity of DC’s street railway system, particularly along Fourteenth Street NW.
All three buildings are designed in the Colonial Revival style and are excellent examples of the development corroboration between Harry Wardman (1872-1938) and his architects, Frank Russell White (1889-1961), and Albert Moreland Schneider (1884-1924). The design for Clifton Terrace is a fine illustration of Wardman and his architects’ apartment building designs.
The Clifton Terrace Apartment complex is typical of the large numbers of conventional, middle-class apartments that were constructed in great numbers throughout DC in the 1910s and 1920s. During these decades, middle-class interest in apartment living surged as individuals and families competed for moderately priced rental apartments. Clifton Terrace remained a middle-to-upper-middle-class apartment complex until 1962, when it fell into disrepair.
DC Inventory: September 26, 2001
National Register: December 26, 2001
