Category: Truxton History

The Washington Sanitary Improvement Company (WSIC), owned, on Square 552, according to the 1933-1934 General Assessment WSIC owned lots 33-35, 49-94, 98-100, 104-150, 811, and 816-820. Previous posts looked at the 100 block of Bates. Square 552 holds both the 100 and 200 block of Bates St NW.

Most if not all of the WSIC properties were built with two flats, as they were intended to be rental properties, not homes for homeowners. Looking at many of the houses on even side of the 200 block of Bates, there is only one property that had two entrances still in 2004.

A peek at Google street view and 222 Bates St NW, which only had one entrance in 2004. It seems sometime around 2015, 222 Bates St became two condos, with two separate entrances. And it got a pop-up.

So what’s the bay, no bay pattern? Starting with 200 Bates: 2nd floor bay, no bay, bay, bay, bay, no bay, bay, no bay, bay, no bay, bay, no bay, bay, no bay, bay, and bay. The pattern makes no sense.

Another thing should note about all the Bates Street houses, from the unit block on Sq. 615 to the 200 on Sq. 552, is there is no yard. It very much like a lot of Baltimore row houses. One steps out their door and the sidewalk is right there. No need for a lawnmower.

The Washington Sanitary Improvement Company (WSIC), owned, according to the 1933-1934 General Assessment WSIC owned lots 33-35, 49-94, 98-100, 104-150, 811, and 816-820. Previously, we looked at the even side of the 100 block of Bates where there were no WSIC owned properties. Now, the odd side.

Lots 816-820, which are 119-123 Bates St NW, are not the first set of houses on the 100 odd block of Bates. The other houses, on lots 183-185 (107-111 Bates St NW) have a noticeably different style.

A WSIC house has a particular style. There is the 2nd floor bay and there are the design details, sometimes two or three, near the top of the building over the windows.

I should note that lots 816-820 were lots 101-103 in 1919.

Old lot 25, became lots 803-805 (and other lots), is 125-129 Bates St NW. Lot 805 remains, and 803-804 became lots 821-822. These are not WSIC properties. You can see by the style of these properties they are not WSIC houses.

If you remember from other WSIC posts, lot 25 owners were hold outs.

Lots 104-106 are 131-135 Bates St NW. Here we return to the WSIC style of 2nd floor bays, or no bays between bays.

Lots 33-35 are 137-141 Bates and it continues the WSIC pattern of houses.

The Washington Sanitary Improvement Company (WSIC), owned, according to the 1933-1934 General Assessment WSIC owned lots 33-35, 49-94, 98-100, 104-150, 811, and 816-820. Previously, we looked at the surrounding streets. Now we get to the creamy caramel center that is Bates St.

On the square that is 552, Bates Street intersects the center and has a 100 block and a 200 block. The even side of the 100 block of Bates St NW are lots 192-194, 202-212, and 217-219. Aaaaand none of those numbers match what was owned by the WSIC in 1933.

A number of Sq. 552 lots were owned by a guy named Charles J. Walker in 1933. On the even 100 block of Bates he owned lot 193, which is 112 Bates St NW. Along with lots 217-219, or 118-122 Bates St NW.

I should look into Mr. Walker, when I’m done with WSIC.

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. According to the 1933-1934 General Assessment WSIC owned lots 33-35, 49-94, 98-100, 104-150, 811, and 816-820. In this post we’ll look at P St NW, which are lots 107-119, 148-150.

So houses west of the alley between 139 and 201 P St NW are WSIC houses. Those are 201-231 P St NW. The other houses, east of the alley, 105-139 P St NW, are not.

I feel I need to state that the images are from 2004. Truxton Circle was a little rough around the edges then. It’s been 18 years now and most of the properties have been renovated. Several homes that were vacant, are now someone’s home. So the images do not reflect their current state. Go on to Google Street View for that.

Several of the WSIC houses have the classic 2nd floor bay and or have the covered entryway.

There are several houses in this row that have kept their two door entries. I believe, and I will look into this later, that almost all the WSIC properties were originally built to house two or more households.

As seen with Q St and 3rd Street, the WSIC bookended their row with a bay that was two stories, as opposed to a 2nd floor bay. They did not do that with P Street.

The two ends of the WSIC row on P Street NW are not identical. 201 P St NW has something unusual, two entry doors, for the same property next to each other and covered. Typically, the two doors are separated by a window. Maybe this was done because of the alley? But if so, this is not replicated on Q St or on Bates.

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). This is the last part covering lots 49-60.

In the last post I skipped to what was 1551 3rd St NW (lot 60), which is now 240 Q St NW, and condos.

So the pattern is 1529 3rd St NW as a 2 story bay, then 2 second story bays, 2 non-bays, 2 bays w/ entryway porches, 2 non-bays with entryway porches, 2 bays with entryway porches, then 1551 with a two story bay.

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.