The Tabard Inn was established at 1739 N Street in 1922 by entrepreneur Marie Willoughby Rogers. At the time she was recently widowed; her husband, a prominent geologist, had died unexpectedly while on a mission with the US Geological Survey. Mrs.…

Before 1930, some DC parks contained sheds to store equipment. The extant facilities from that era, however, include only buildings that were later repurposed for recreation use. But park administrators now needed facilities that could accommodate…

In 1921, a United Citizens Playground Committee completed a study and recommended that the District Commissioners adopt a system of equitable distribution of playgrounds around the city, urging the immediate provision of three facilities for white…

The Homestead Apartments were constructed in 1939, one of many multi-unit buildings erected to house working-class and middle-class Washingtonians during the interwar period. Much of this development followed the streetcar lines radiating from…

The Glenn Arms apartment building was constructed in 1916 by J.E. Fox for owner and architect George N. Bell (of the firm Hunter & Bell). It was not known by a name until it and its next-door neighbor, the Fulford, came into common ownership and…

The Fulford was constructed in 1911 and named upon its completion. Its architect was Carroll Beale (1882-1942), a self-employed civil engineer, residential builder and innovator in concrete construction. The four-story brick building has an Italian…

The Equitable Life Insurance Company was founded in Washington in 1885. Following World War II, the industry entered an age of major expansion and significant profit as it invested life insurance funds in housing mortgages. During the 1950s,…

The West Heating Plant, originally known as the West Central Heating Plant, was designed by consulting architect William Dewey Foster (1890-1958), working under successive Supervising Architects of the Public Buildings Administration, Louis A. Simon…

Roosevelt High School was founded in 1890 as Business High School, then DC’s only institution devoted to instruction in business. The co-educational and segregated school had an itinerant early history until it moved into its first purpose-built…

Construction of the Petworth Library (historically known as Petworth Branch Library) was long in the making. The first expressed desire for a library in the community came in 1927 when the Petworth Women’s Club library committee, with support from…