In my last post about the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company (WSIC) and Square 617 (bounded by 1st, N, North Cap, and O Streets NW) I said the architecture looked annoying. Take a look at the entryway below.
Note the stairs in the photo (0617 0225). The original iron stairs were replaced by brick and there doesn’t seem to be a clear line in the brick.
This works when the owner owns both buildings. This can cause all sorts of headaches when there are two different owners, with different attitudes about maintenance and repairs.
Please forgive me, I am not an architect and have very little interest in focusing on the architecture of Truxton Circle, because that just leads to the Great Satan that is historic districting. But WSIC buildings in the TC have distinctive bays. In the case of the O Street buildings, I think what I am seeing is a bay with adjacent entryways.
For 14 O St NW, this is fine.
It doesn’t have an entryway close to another unit’s entry. In the photo above, taken in 2004, it appears 14 O St NW was two units. Even the second unit is not too close to the neighboring house’s entry.