DC Architects To Know Series: Part Two
This interactive map shows the buildings designed by the five architects featured in Part Two of the DC Architects To Know Series, which can be found on the DC Preservation League website. These buildings are historically-designated and are on the DC Inventory of Historic Sites and/or the National Register of Historic Places.
Albert Cassell (1895 - 1969): Howard University's Founders Library, Mayfair Mansions, Prince Hall Masonic Temple
— Cassell served as Howard University's official architect from 1922 to 1938, and was responsible for the university's 1930 Master Plan.
Appleton P. Clark (1865 - 1955): St. Phillip's Baptist Church, Second Baptist Church, Owl's Nest, Victor Building, Homer Building, Denrike Building, Second National Bank, Hebrew Home for the Aged and Jewish Social Service Agency, Episcopal Home for Children, 1644-66 Park Road NW, Civil Service Commission
— Clark designed buildings in a variety of eclectic styles, from Renaissance Revival to Tudor Gothic Revival.
Alfred Mullett (1834 - 1890): State, War, and Navy Building (Old Executive Office Building), Baltimore Sun Building, Central National Bank (Apex Building), Mullett Rowhouses
— Mullett served as the Supervising Architect for the U.S. Treasury from 1863 to 1874. The Office of the Supervising Architect was responsible for the design of federal buildings — post offices, custom houses, courthouses, and the like — between the 1850s and 1930s.
George T. Santmyers (1889 - 1960): 3901 Connecticut Avenue NW, Meridian Manor, Lexington Apartments, Fort View Apartments, Glade Apartments, Park Vista and Pine Manor (Concord Apartments), Dahlgreen Courts, Metropolitan Apartments, Hampshire Gardens (with James E. Cooper)
— Santmyers designed nearly 450 apartment buildings in a variety of styles throughout the District.
George Oakley Totten, Jr. (1866 - 1934): Christian Hauge House, "Pink Palace," Old French Embassy, Charles Evans Hughes House, United Mine Workers of America (The University Club), Meridian Hall, Embassy Building No. 10, Old Hungarian Embassy, Congressional Club, Warder-Totten House (reconstruction)
— As Mary Foote Henderson's official architect, Totten designed many embassy buildings in the Meridian Hill neighborhood, as well as many mansions for wealthy Washingtonians.
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Howard University: This Historic District and National Historic Landmark encompasses three significant buildings on the Main Yard.
These three buildings on Howard University’s Main Yard are nationally significant as the setting for the institution’s role in the legal establishment of racially desegregated public education, and…
Mayfair Mansions: The Mayfair Mansions apartment complex represented a significant development in fair housing for African Americans.
Mayfair Mansions, built between 1942 and 1946, was designed by Albert I. Cassell, a Black architect who conceived of a park-like setting, citing the 17 buildings of the complex on angles about a…
Prince Hall Masonic Temple: This building on U Street NW is home to the nation’s earliest and largest Black fraternity, founded in 1825.
Founded in 1825 by both enslaved people and free Black people, Prince Hall Masonic Temple became the headquarters to the nation’s earliest and largest Black fraternity. When the Prince Hall Masonic…
Saint Phillip's Baptist Church: Saint Phillip’s Baptist Church has stood on the corner of North Capitol and K streets NE since its dedication in 1892.
Saint Phillip’s Baptist Church has stood on the corner of North Capitol and K streets NE since its dedication in 1892. With its deep red brick façade, brownstone trim, and pitched gable roof, the…
Second Baptist Church: Second Baptist Church is the home of the city’s second oldest African American Baptist congregation, founded in 1848.
Second Baptist Church sprang from the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church and is noted in the Baptist movement as the mother church for many other area congregations. The church was first located on this…
Owl’s Nest: This historic Shingle-style home stands as a reminder of Washington's surroundings before suburban development.
Built as a rural country house for journalist William L. Crounse, Owl’s Nest and its exceptional wooded grounds illustrate the gradual transition of the former Washington County from farmsteads, to…
Victor Building (Facade Only): This office building's design and location highlighted the illustrious career of Victor Evans, the building's owner.
Standing near the corner of G and 9th streets NW in the heart of the city, the Victor Building’s construction made it even more convenient for the original owner, Victor Evans, to complete his work.…
Homer Building: Constructed in 1913-1914, this building was designed by Appleton P. Clark, Jr. to house offices and stores.
The Homer Building appears to have been named for Homer Guerry, a Washington lawyer who had previously owned much of the property on which it was erected. It was opened for occupancy during World War…
Denrike Building: This office building, on the edge of DC's Financial District, is an early-20th-century example of downtown redevelopment.
The Denrike Building was completed in 1926 and designed by local architect Appleton P. Clark, Jr. Although part of a collection of office buildings in the Financial Historic District, the building’s…
Second National Bank: This classically-inspired bank building is located within the Financial Historic District.
The Second National Bank stands among a group of banks in the vicinity of the Treasury Department that contribute to DC's financial district. It is one of the last of the classically inspired…
Hebrew Home for the Aged and Jewish Social Service Agency: The Hebrew Home for the Aged was built to serve DC's growing Jewish community in the early 20th century.
The Hebrew Home for the Aged was constructed in 1925 to provide social support for destitute Jews, many of whom were immigrants who neither spoke nor understood English. The Hebrew Home, located in…
Episcopal Home for Children: For 125 years, the Episcopal Home for Children offered a range of services for underprivileged children in Washington, DC.
“It was becoming clear that many of the so-called advances of industrial society were achieved at the expense of children’s health and well-being…” Children’s Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
1644‑66 Park Road, NW: These rowhouses are a model of the speculative development common in Mount Pleasant at the turn of the century.
1644-1666 Park Road, built in 1906, consists of twelve red brick, three-story, semi-detached Colonial Revival row houses facing north. The six duplex buildings, which are divided vertically, rest on…
Civil Service Commission: Housed in this building from 1911 to 1950, the Civil Service Commission played a major role in setting the conditions of employment for the federal bureaucracy.
Erected in 1911 by the Samuel J. Prescott Company to a design by prominent Washington architect Appleton P. Clark, Jr., the Civil Service Commission building exemplifies the early-20th century office…
State, War and Navy Building (Old Executive Office Building; Eisenhower Building): This administrative building is distinguished by its purple-grey Virginia granite walls and slate mansard roofs.
The State, War and Navy Building was built just west of the White House, between 1871 and 1888, to designs by architect Alfred B. Mullett. Like the Greek Revival style Treasury Department Building to…
Baltimore Sun Building (American Bank Building): Built as the Washington news bureau of the Baltimore Sun, this building is a fine example of Victorian Gothic architecture.
The Baltimore Sun Building (also known as the Sun Building or American Bank Building) was designed in 1885-87 by nationally recognized architect Alfred B. Mullett for A.S. Abell, publisher of the…
Central National Bank (Apex Building): The Apex Building showcases changes to Pennsylvania Avenue from the nineteenth century through today.
The Central National Bank, also known as the Dorothy I. Height Building or Apex Building, is now the national headquarters of the National Council of Negro Women. The twin-turreted, former bank was…
Mullett Rowhouses: These speculative luxury townhouses were designed to look like one large mansion, instead of three separate dwellings.
Designed in 1889 by architect Alfred B. Mullett (1834-1890), the Mullett Rowhouses can be found in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood. This row of Queen Anne style residences were built of red brick with…
3901 Connecticut Avenue NW (and Lobby): This Tudor Revival-style apartment building is one of many luxury buildings along Connecticut Avenue.
The garden-style construction at 3901 Connecticut Avenue NW fulfilled many of the aesthetic and logistic needs of the residents that lived there. The building had direct streetcar access that allowed…
Meridian Manor: Meridian Manor exemplifies the middle-class apartments built in the 1910s and 1920s near the 14th Street streetcar line.
Meridian Manor is a significant example of the speculative middle-class apartment buildings that were constructed in the 1910s and 1920s along the 14th Street streetcar line. Noted architect George T.…
Lexington Apartments: The Lexington Apartments is an example of the buildings designed for DC's expanding middle class in the 1920s.
The Lexington is a conventional low-rise apartment building, erected in 1928 by developer Charles Sager to house a portion of the city's expanding middle class at the eastern edge of Capitol Hill. The…
Fort View Apartments: Fort View Apartments, also known as Fort Stevens Place, is an example of an Art Deco/Moderne apartment building.
Designed by renowned Washington architect George T. Santmyers, the Fort View Apartments complex, also known as Fort Stevens Place, is comprised of two three-story brick and cinder block buildings…
Glade Apartments: Influenced by transportation improvements, a new zoning ordinance, and Depression-era population growth, The Glade Apartments embody the physical and social developments of the Brightwood neighborhood during the interwar period.
Up until the early twentieth century, the Brightwood area was mostly rural. In the 1820s, Brightwood contained important transportation routes until the road network changed during the Civil War for a…
Park Vista and Pine Manor (Concord Apartments): The Concord Apartments represent DC’s increasing population in the 1930s and its impact on the city’s architecture.
Built in 1936, 1937, and 1938, respectively, these four low-rise buildings in Brightwood are representative of the modest apartment buildings constructed to address the city’s explosive population…
Dahlgreen Courts: Dahlgreen Courts is comprised of two apartment buildings constructed side-by-side between 1927 and 1929.
Both buildings of Dahlgreen Courts reflect architect George T. Santmyers' preference for the Classical Revival style, although the building at 2520 10th Street is less ornate than its counterpart at…
Metropolitan Apartments: Constructed between 1936 and 1937, the Metropolitan’s Elizabethan-inflected Art Deco design was the work of George T. Santmyers.
Built between 1936 and 1937, the Metropolitan Apartment Building was designed by George T. Santmyers, one of the most prolific architects of apartment buildings in the District of Columbia. Built…
Hampshire Gardens: Hampshire Gardens stands as one of the first completed garden-style apartment buildings in the city.
Completed in 1929, this garden-style apartment building was meant to have a distinctly British aesthetic with its Tudor Revival style construction. Hampshire Gardens, in addition to its attention to…
Christian Hauge House (Embassy of the Republic of Cameroon): The embassy, housed in a former residence, stands as one of the many distinguished buildings found along Massachusetts Avenue.
Found at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and 24th Street NW, the Christian Hauge House’s intricate architecture is exemplary of the neighborhood’s elegant aesthetic. Designed by George Oakley…
"Pink Palace" (Mrs. Marshall Field House; Inter-American Defense Board): This Venetian Gothic Revival style building was constructed to create a grand entrance into the nation’s capital along 16th Street NW.
The Inter-American Defense Board headquarters, located at 2600 16th Street NW, is a monumental Venetian Gothic Revival style building constructed in 1905 as part of socialite and developer Mary Foote…
Old French Embassy: The Old French Embassy is just one of several mansions commissioned by Mary Foote Henderson to serve as an embassy.
This former embassy is among the finest of nearly a dozen Meridian Hill mansions built by Mary Foote Henderson (1841-1931), in collaboration with her favorite architect, George Oakley Totten Jr.…
Charles Evans Hughes House (Chancery of Burma): Now the Chancery of Burma, this house is notable for its association with Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes.
Built in 1907 for A. Clifford and Alice Pike Barney by George Oakley Totten, this house is most notable as the home of Charles Evans Hughes—a statesman and juror of the highest order, a leader in the…
United Mine Workers of America (The University Club): Best known for its association with John L. Lewis, this structure is a key part of labor history in DC.
Designed by George Oakley Totten Jr. and constructed in 1912 as the University Club, this building is now more closely associated with the legendary union leader John L. Lewis (1880-1969). A self-made…
Meridian Hall: Meridian Hall was commissioned by Mary Foote Henderson to be used as an embassy.
Meridian Hall, like several other mansions in the Meridian Hill Historic District, was commissioned by Mary Foote Henderson, who was the guiding force behind the development of the area as an enclave…
Embassy Building No. 10: Now a building housing DC’s Department of Parks and Recreation, Embassy Building No. 10 was among Mary Foote Henderson’s plans for Sixteenth Street.
In 1928, Embassy Building No. 10 was designed by architect George Oakley Totten Jr. (1866-1939), which was built in the following years. The building was designed to incorporate both public and…
Old Hungarian Embassy: Like others nearby, this house was designed as an embassy, but it has housed other tenants for most of its history.
Like Meridian Hall and several other mansions in the Meridian Hill Historic District, this building was part of Mary Foote Henderson's plan to beautify the area. She commissioned renowned architect…
The Congressional Club: This club was built in 1914 for the spouses of high-ranking government figures.
The Congressional Club is a distinctive Beaux-Arts, Classical Revival style building with a prominent domed rotunda at the corner of 16th Street, U Street, and New Hampshire Avenue NW. Designed by…
Warder-Totten House: Originally built at another location, this H.H. Richardson-designed house was razed and reconstructed here by George O. Totten Jr.
The Warder-Totten House is the only structure designed by the firm of Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1866) remaining in DC. Commissioned in 1885 by American businessman Benjamin Warder (1824-1894) at…Tour curated by: DC Preservation League