The Bulletin Building

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Erected in 1928, the Bulletin Building housed the offices and printing press of the United Publishing Company, publisher of The Bulletin. The Bulletin, founded in 1894 by Thomas C. Noyes (1868-1912), was a large, single-sheet tabloid posted at hotels, restaurants, and businesses throughout the city that remained in circulation for twenty-eight years. 

The Art Deco-inspired building was designed by local architect Gilbert LaCoste Rodier (1889-1971), brother of Henry Tait Rodier (1884-1977), the company’s then-president and publisher of The Bulletin. The building is significant as one of the city’s better examples of industrial architecture and for its employment of the artistic decorative limestone panels depicting the trade of the company within. The panels themselves, and the other decorative flourishes of the façade, form an early and definite example of Art Deco architecture, uncommon in DC in any pure form. The bas reliefs are themselves both early and rare examples of figural, occupational depictions, influenced both by Art Deco stylization and socialist realism. The building itself may be one of the best and most recognizable symbols and artifacts of the printing and publishing trades, formerly of primary importance to the city’s industrial economy and function. The exterior of the Bulletin Building remains largely intact to its 1928 condition, with just a small 1931 rear addition and with the Art Deco reliefs only slightly damaged. 

Today, the restaurant, Bar Deco, occupies the building.

DC Inventory: September 28, 2006
National Register: November 12, 2008