Myrene Apartment Building
Built between 1897 and 1898, the Myrene is one of the earliest apartment buildings constructed in Washington
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The continued growth of D.C. meant a need to house more residents, and the Myrene helped to provide middle-class Washingtonians a place to live. The resistance toward apartment living did affect its design; the architect, J.H. McIntyre, utilized a stacked flats design to make the exterior of the Myrene appear as a single-family home, concealing the multiple units inside. This look also better suited the neighborhood because of the narrow plots of land that the other houses occupied.
With more middle-class families moving into D.C. for work, apartment buildings helped to provide housing for those that could not afford a single-family house. The Myrene's rowhouse appearance allowed its residents to have the exterior look of a single-family home, but the affordability of an apartment. It took years for Washingtonians to fully accept apartment living, but the Myrene and other buildings created the foundational blocks to move in this direction. Its proximity to downtown and concealed purpose bridged some of the gaps that made residents more comfortable with sharing the same building as other families.
DC Inventory: January 17, 1990
National Register: September 9, 1994
This site is a stop on the D.C. Apartment Buildings tour as an example of a Stacked Flats apartment building.
