Month: April 2022

In the month of April we’re looking at the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company (WSIC) ownership of lots on Square 552, which is bounded by 1st, P, 3rd and Q Streets NW in Washington, DC. The company, WSIC owned 1529-1551 3rd St NW (lots 49-60 ) and 1501-1523 3rd St NW (lots 120-131). In part 1, 1501 to 1515 3rd St NW was reviewed.

In the last post I didn’t mention how many of these 1500 block houses are two flat properties.  The WSIC houses were built as rentals. 1507-1509, 1513-1523 3rd Street had two doors still in 2004. 1511 3rd St NW has evidence of a door being where a window is now, when looking at an exterior photo from the real estate site Zillow, and spotting a line where the stairs would have been.

WSIC’s 3rd St properties have a porch, bay, along with the bay, no bay, pattern going on.

The corner house, 1523 3rd St has been renovated since 2004. I thought I had several photos of the updated property, but I cannot find them.

Since it wasn’t tremendously altered, DC still has the 2004 photo available.

Hopping to the other side of Bates Street, 240 Q St seen partially in the photo below of 1549 3rd St NW. It’s old photo is no longer available.

So this happened.

The 2 floor bay remained in the new configuration of the corner property. It was dramatically changed and the 2004 photo is no longer available. The unchanged 1549 3rd St NW can been seen in the above photo.

In the month of April we’re looking at the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company (WSIC) ownership of lots on Square 552, which is bounded by 1st, P, 3rd and Q Streets NW in Washington, DC. WSIC owned lots 49-60 (1529-1551 3rd St NW) and lots 120-131 (1501-1523 3rd St NW).

1501 and 1551 3rd St NW are similar to 200 and 230 Q St NW, having a 1st and 2nd floor bay. This differs from the properties with bays between  1501 and 1551, which if there are bays, those bays are just 2nd floor bays. After 1501 3rd St NW going north, there is a short, no bay, bay, no bay pattern until 1511 3rd St NW. And then there is 1513 3rd St NW (lot 126) where there is a bay, after a bay, and a shared porch.

So the adjoining property (1515 3rd St NW) with the porch is without a 2nd floor bay. 1515 3rd St NW has two entrances, for two separate units. One still had a covered entry, which I’m calling a porch. It appears that it may have had two shared porches. However, the porch pattern seems to hint that this is the start of a new pattern.

In the previous posts, I identified properties on Sq. 552 (bounded by 1st, P, 3rd and Q Sts NW) owned by the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company (WSIC). This post looks at 1st Street.

This is real easy. There were none owned by WSIC.

The even side of the 1500 block of 1st St NW were lots 177-182 (1536-1526 1st St NW), 197-201 (1546-1538 1st St NW), and 163-175 (1524-1500 1st St NW). Looking at the 1933 General Assessment, these were owned by a variety of individuals, not the WSIC.

In the previous post about the even side of Q St NW,  the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company (WSIC) owned 130-230 Q St NW, in addition to other lots on Square 552. Part 1 looked at the 100 block of Q St NW. This will finish with the 200 block of Q St NW.

There is sort of a pattern for the 200 block of Q St NW. There are 3 bays (200 has 1st and 2nd floor bays) for 200-204 Q St NW. Then 2 bay-less properties. However there is a new style of a shared porch entrance for bay-less 206-208 Q St NW. The bays return for two properties, at 210-212 Q St NW.  214-216 Q St NW are bayless with the shared porch. 218-220 Q St NW have the 2nd floor bays and 222-224 are bayless with a shared porch. But then what looks like what would be a bayed pair in the pattern, has both 2nd floor bay windows and a shared porch at 226-228 Q St NW.

And 230 Q St NW bookends this row with a 2 story bay, just like 200 Q St NW.

Since I did it for Part 1, below is from the 1917 DC City Directory showing two units per property. Keep in mind this is for the even side of Q St NW. 208 Q St NW, doesn’t appear to have an ‘A’ like the other houses from 200-230 Q St NW. But is does have two households.