The Everglades Apartment Building

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Constructed in 1939, the Everglades Apartment Building was one of many apartment buildings established to fit DC's growing population in the interwar period. It is the work of developer Harry M. Bralove, one of Washington’s leaders in apartment building construction in the 1930s, and modernist architect Joseph H. Abel, regarded as one of the city’s leading Art Deco designers. The Everglades is an important example of Abel’s work and epitomizes the Art Deco style that was popular in apartment building design during the 1920s and 1930s. The Art Deco design of the Everglades was intrinsic in the presentation of a modern apartment building that would appeal to Washington’s burgeoning middle class of federal workers during the 1930s.

Examples of this building type were typically constructed between 1922 and 1945. Conventional high-rise buildings played a critical role in the development of apartment buildings in the District of Columbia. These buildings employed modern technology such as steel-frame structural systems and passenger elevators to create tall buildings that accommodated many units on a small footprint. This efficient use of land led to greater affordability of housing units and greatly altered the course of residential patterns in the city.

DC Inventory: January 28, 2010
National Register: June 18, 2010