Category: Buildings

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.

 

Feeling a bit under the weather so the posts are going to slow down a bit.

In an earlier post, WSIC- 1930s Ownership of Sq. 615, I wrote: “… the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company owned the following lots on Sq. 615 (bounded by North Cap, Q St, 1st St and P St NW): 65-66, 134-140, 170-179, 195-207, and 236-265.”

In a previous post I specifically looked at 31 and 33 Bates Street,  part of 31- 43 Bates St NW, lots 134-140, now lots 285-291.

The Washington Sanitary Improvement Company owned the whole of the odd side of Bates Street, NW. And visually, for a bit, they had the 2nd story bay window, then no bay, then bay pattern, starting at 15 Bates to 37 Bates St NW. But 37 and neighboring 35 Bates St. NW are bay-less.

It begins to look like the bay-no-bay pattern will restart with 39-45 Bates St, but then there are a row of the distinctive Truxton Circle 2nd floor bay windows.

From 55-65 Bates St NW, it goes back to the bay, no bay, bay pattern. Addresses 65-67 Bates NW are bayless together, and then the pattern restarts.

The even side of the unit block of Bates is just as inconsistent. Just a little less so. It starts off with bay, no bay, then bay and keeps it up until 52-54 Bates Street with neighboring bay-less windows.

54-58 Bates St NW form a no bay, bay, no bay sandwich before it is nothing but bay windows till 1st St NW.

I’m sure there was a method to the madness.

In a previous post, WSIC- 1930s Ownership of Sq. 615, I wrote: “… the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company owned the following lots on Sq. 615 (bounded by North Cap, Q St, 1st St and P St NW): 65-66, 134-140, 170-179, 195-207, and 236-265.”

I’m going to skip Square 615’s lots 65-66. which are 22 and 24 Q St NW. They do not look different from the other adjoining town homes.

So let’s first look at lots 134-140. And here is where we find our first problem. The lot numbers changed. Lot 140 would be 31 Bates Street NW. That address is now lot 285. I find a lot number changes. Sometimes the property undergoes some sort of conversion or there is another reason for the lot number change. It doesn’t happen too often but it does happen.

Next is lot 139, which like 140, no longer exists in the tax rolls. It was 33 Bates Street NW, which is now lot 286.

So what are we seeing here in these two images of Bates Street NW houses. The image for 31 Bates St NW shows the distinctive 2nd floor centered bay and the two entrances, reflecting the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company’s (WSIC) idea of having a two flat unit. The second door, is a window in the image for lot 285.

The pattern for the row is bay, no bay, bay, no bay.

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.

In 1903 parties (George Sternberg and George Kober) involved with the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company owned the following lots on Sq. 615 (bounded by North Cap, Q St, 1st St and P St NW): 65-66, 134-140, 170-179, 195-207, and 236-265.

Fast forward to the 1933-1934 General Assessment, and it looks like the Washington Loan and Trust Company was holding or acting as a trustee for the WSIC.

There was a document that the WSIC owned the following lots in 1950. Lots 0134, 0135, 0136, 0137, 0138, 0139, 0140, 0170, 0171, 0172, 0173, 0174, 0175, 0176, 0177, 0178, 0179, 0195, 0196, 0197, 0198, 0199, 0200, 0201, 0202, 0203, 0204, 0205, 0206, 0207, 0236, 0237, 0238, 0239, 0240, 0241, 0242, 0243, 0244, 0245, 0246, 0247, 0248, 0249, 0250, 0251, 0252, 0253, 0254, 0255, and 0256. So basically the same lots, minus lots 65-66.

Next, I need to do a wide search to see if WSIC owned anything else in Truxton Circle, besides Squares 552 and 615. I don’t think so, but I need to check.