Jefferson Apartment Building
Built in 1899, the Jefferson was a part of the earliest waves of apartment building construction within the city.
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Designed by D.C. architect George S. Cooper and completed in 1899 as part of the first wave of apartment building construction, the Jefferson's conventional low-rise style utilized Romanesque Revival features for its middle-class residents working and residing in the city. Even with its architectural detailing, it still took many years and continued construction of apartment buildings for Washingtonians to fully accept apartment buildings. However, around the turn of the century, buildings like the Jefferson pushed city residents toward multi-unit buildings.
The Jefferson's presence on H Street allowed more middle-class residents to move closer to work downtown without the larger expenses of owning a home. The growing population and increase in construction of apartment buildings indicated that future housing developments and demographic trends within D.C. would continue to shift, especially in the coming decades of the twentieth century.
DC Inventory: February 21, 1990
National Register: September 7, 1994
This site is a stop on the D.C. Apartment Buildings tour as an example of a Conventional Low-Rise apartment building.
