I’m thinking about doing a history of the set of houses that have a unique style in the Truxton Circle area. These would be the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company houses that are mostly on Bates St NW. I want to do the same level of depth of research as I do the Black Home Owners of Truxton Circle series.
But I know a negative side of doing such research and sharing it. I did not intend to provide information for the Wardman Flats to become a historic landmark. So there is the slight chance that what I put out there could be used by someone to attempt to make a historic district or landmark.
It’s not like there aren’t other bits of history about the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company and Bates Street about. The House History Man authored a post about 9 years ago on this subject. And there is a book The History and Development of the Housing Movement in the City of Washington, D.C. published by the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company, available at the Smithsonian site, Google Books, and other sites on the web.
So with a few years warning, I say to you owners of former Washington Sanitary Improvement Company homes, get to poppin’. Throw on your pop ups, your pop backs. Install ye vinyl windows while ye may. Change the friggin fronts.