Barr Building
Constructed between 1926 and 1937, the Barr Building is an eleven-story office building on Farragut Square.
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The Barr Building was built by prominent real estate developer John L. Barr, for whom it was named, and designed by architect B. Stanley Simmons, with whom Barr often collaborated. It is executed in a soaring Gothic Revival style that is not common for this city’s commercial building fabric. Presumably inspired by well-known predecessors, such as New York’s Woolworth Building and the Chicago Tribune Tower, the Barr Building is an exuberant and fully realized example of the style.
One of the oldest buildings on Farragut Square, the Barr Building illustrates the initial wave of 20th century commercial development in the city when older, 19th century residential buildings were replaced with larger office buildings catering to the city’s growing business community.
DC Inventory: October 25, 2012
National Register: January 23, 2013
