This is the old building, probably the same one that was in the 1957 Church Survey.
Fifteenth Street Presbyterian 1899
Category: Buildings
Thoughts on small houses and their design
I’ve been clearing out the draft folder. This one is from April 4, 2009. I’ll add my thoughts at the end.
I spent months giving thought to how I wanted to redesign my roughly 1000sq ft (not counting cellar) house. I radically changed the second floor layout, moving the bathroom and making one bedroom a really big closet… with a bed. So when I see other small houses and it appears that was designed poorly, I wonder if they took into consideration the small space or just thought they could just reduce the measurements, squeeze stuff in and it would be alright.
Here are a few thoughts-
Can it get through the door/up the stairs. This was a very important question in the early years of my house. Because of some stupid pipe near the front door, it didn’t open all the way. I nearly had to throw out the comfy chair because said chair barely made it though the door and took some wall with it. The fridge required taking the door off the hinges and lifting it through a couple of passageways. It would have been easier if they took it through the back door on the alley side but the delivery guys weren’t going to even entertain that thought. Then there is the issue of never being able to have a double bed box spring, unless I was planning on sleeping in the living room. There are corners to turn and tight spots and if what you’re hauling to the 2nd or 3rd floor is big there is a chance it’s staying in the living room too. I considered space and movement issues. The doorway is still small but there are no stairs to hit nor a wall to gouge if bringing in a couch. The ceiling heights and lack of obstructions on the 2nd floor now allow for a large mattress or other furniture, as long as it can get up the stairs.
A size 12 in size 8 clothing. There are things that just overpower a space. Like a huge sink in a 1/2 bath, that takes up half of the bathroom. And that just draws attention to the fact that it is a small space. There is the mid-sized bathroom with a big jacuzzi tub shoehorned in.
[July 2023 thoughts]
I oversaw 4 rehab projects on my old DC home before selling it in 2020. The first was in 2003/2004 to update the kitchen where I had 1 foot of counter space. The second was the big project where the 1st and 2nd floors were gutted. The third was finishing the basement. The last one was in 2015 when we added an addition above the kitchen. All this changed my dumpy 1000 sq ft home to a nice little 1700 sq. ft home. All the renovations and work put into it was about $300K.
There are drawbacks to open floor plans. Sound and smell. But you don’t have to worry about getting large things from one room to another. The stairs were still tight, but not as tight as before. We had a huge dresser at the top of the stairs which required large men with upper body strength to move over the banister, but there was more room.
Piecing Together Lost Truxton Circle or What the what am I looking at? Pt 5
In the previous postings for parts 1-4 we looked at buildings south and north of the Dunbar High School field in 1942. Now let’s look west.
Just to orient you, here is a USGS aerial map from 1951.
And now a look on the west (left) end of the field.
Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information photograph collection (Library of Congress), ca 1942
Those buildings no longer exist. It is now just part of the Dunbar track. I wonder it that taller 3 story detached building was the old Twinings school?
Memory Lane: Dunbar
It was an ugly building.
It looked like a prison.
I’m glad it is gone.
Piecing Together Lost Truxton Circle or What the what am I looking at? Pt 4
This is more of a continuation of part 3.
We are looking north from the Dunbar High School field. We see the bleachers. We do not see Armstrong in the background which means we see more buildings that no longer exist on the 200 block of O St NW.
Below, more of the same.
Swinging to the other end of the bleachers looking along O Street, we see another part of the field with female Dunbar students.
Here we clearly see Armstrong High School in the background.
Piecing Together Lost Truxton Circle or What the what am I looking at? Pt 3
In part 3 we look on the other side of the Dunbar High School fields in 1942, towards the bleachers.
In the above 1951 aerial of the neighborhood, find Dunbar and its field with what looks like tennis courts in the lower right hand corner of the campus. Now on the opposite side of the field see a long light colored or white stretch of something, those are the bleachers.
In the background you can see Armstrong Technical High School and a little corner of old Dunbar High School.
In the above photograph, we see more of Armstrong on the 100-200 block of O Street NW.
Piecing Together Lost Truxton Circle or What the what am I looking at? Pt 2
Continuing on from Part 1….
Look at this photo taken in 1942.
Now same day in March 1942, same event.
Behind them appears to be the National Homeopathic Hospital. Below is a photo of the hospital from 1910.
You can see the front of the hospital in the top photograph. In the second photo you can see part of the old Dunbar High School building. Despite it being an event for Armstrong High School boys, it appears they are on Dunbar’s campus.
Below is an aerial photo from 1951 or 1952 taken by the US Geological Survey. Keeping in mind where the two tallish buildings of the hospital sat, and the corner of old Dunbar, you can see where the boys were parading.
Piecing Together Lost Truxton Circle or What the what am I looking at? Pt 1
I’ve been looking at the Library of Congress’ photo collection online for Truxton Circle related images. I found a slew of Armstrong High School photos, and some Dunbar High School images, some of them outside. Looking at them I noticed buildings in the background that no longer exist and tried to figure out where the photos were looking.
The LC photos were from March 1942. Below is an aerial photo from 1951 or 1952 taken by the US Geological Survey.
Armstrong as a building still exists.
Dunbar exists, but not the original building. The 3rd building for Dunbar High School exists on that block.
The Homeopathic Hospital no longer exists either.
A lot of buildings shown in the above aerial photo no longer exist. Currently there are no buildings on the east side and southwest side of Armstrong, as there were in the 1951 photo. Dunbar now takes up the whole block but in 1951 had structures on its western side. The Homeopathic Hospital got absorbed by the New York Avenue playground.
In later posts I will compare the 1942 photos to the 1951 aerial photo and try to match up the buildings or structures.
Sometimes smaller is better
I’m going through my old drafts. Some I rewrite, such as this one. Some I delete. And some I rewrite, still think they’re crap and delete them. This was written October 8, 2008.
Sometimes.
I’ve just finished reading an article regarding the upsides of raising a family in a 1,200 sf house over that of a McMansion. The author writes:
Looking back on 18 years of living small, I see that our snug house has prevented us from easily avoiding one another by retreating into our own spaces. We’ve been able to eavesdrop on our kids as they played with friends and look over their shoulders as they did homework on the dining room table. It’s been good for our health too, forcing all of us, especially our sons, to spend more time out-of-doors. There simply isn’t room to get too rowdy inside, so often they have headed outside to a neighborhood park that’s conveniently located just across the street.I hope we’ve given our sons the message that wealth doesn’t come from our material possessions, but instead from the diversity of experiences we have and the richness of our community.
The author also mentions that with a smaller house she could pay off the mortgage quicker, heat it for less and have a better commute. I already have the great commute. It is my great luck to work for an agency whose DC metro branches are all along the Green Line. My current commute is a 30-45 minute walk, or 20 minutes by metro, and that is priceless. The house is small and there isn’t much to heat or cool, and I tend to be happy lounging in 1/6th of the space. And there is the possibility of actually paying off the mortgages in the next 15 years, but I owe that more to when I bought the house as opposed to the size of the house.
The article was in the conservative online magazine Culture 11 “Living Small”
Memory Lane: From Richardson Pl, circa 2005
