DC Architects To Know Series: Part One

Curated by DC Preservation League

This interactive map shows the buildings designed by the five architects featured in Part One of the DC Architects To Know Series, which can be found on the DC Preservation League website. These buildings are historically-designated and are on the DC Inventory of Historic Sites and/or the National Register of Historic Places.

Romulus C. Archer (1890-1968): Saint Paul AUMP Church

— Archer was the second African American architect registered in DC.

James G. Hill (c. 1839-1913): Auditor's Building Complex (Bureau of Engraving and Printing), Atlantic Building, National Bank of Washington, Washington Loan & Trust Company, Government Printing Office

— Hill served as the Supervising Architect for the U.S. Treasury from 1877 to 1883. The Office of the Supervising Architect was responsible for the design of federal buildings — post offices, custom houses, courthouses, and the like — between the 1850s and 1930s.

Mihran Mesrobian (1885-1975): Cathedral Mansions, Wardman Tower, Carlton Hotel, Sedgwick Gardens

— Mesrobian served as the Chief Architect of the Wardman Construction Company from 1926 to 1930.

Chloethiel Woodard Smith (1910-1992): Capitol Park Apartments, Capitol Park Plaza and Twins (with Nicholas Satterlee), Harbour Square

— Smith's architecture firm was the nation's largest woman-run firm in 1970.

Waddy B. Wood (1869-1944): Union Trust Company, Western Union Building (Commercial National Bank), Southern Railway Building, Capital Traction Company Union Station, East Capitol Street Car Barn, Armstrong Manual Training School, Barney Studio House, Bachelor Apartment House, Masonic Temple (at 13th Street and New York Avenue NW), Woodrow Wilson House, New Interior Building (Department of the Interior), Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company (Cleveland-Emerson Exchange), Founding Church of Scientology, Washington, DC, Victor Building (second addition only), Old Chinese Legation

— Wood was a prolific, self-taught architect who designed homes for Washington's elite, as well as major public buildings.

Saint Paul AUMP Church

Saint Paul African Union Methodist Protestant Church is the only DC church evolved from what is considered the oldest incorporated, independent African American denomination in the country. Dating from 1813, the AUMP denomination is also noted for…

Auditor's Building Complex (Bureau of Engraving and Printing)

Built between 1878 and 1880, the Auditor’s Building was the first facility designed and constructed by the federal government for the U.S. Department of the Treasury Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The complex housed the necessary materials for the…

Atlantic Building

When the Atlantic Building was completed in 1888, it was the largest commercial structure in the city and one of the first with a passenger elevator. Located on F Street in the heart of downtown, the speculative office building was designed in a…

National Bank of Washington

The National Bank of Washington was organized under the name “Bank of Washington” in 1809. It was the first Washington bank of purely local origin and interest, being preceded only by a branch bank of the First Bank of the United States. Throughout…

Washington Loan and Trust Company

The Washington Loan and Trust Company Building is prominently situated across from the Old Patent Office. It was home to the city's first trust company, originally organized in 1889 by Brainerd H. Warner, and acquired by Riggs Bank in 1954. The…

Government Printing Office

Ever since its establishment by Congress in 1861, the Government Printing Office, now known as the Government Publishing Office (GPO), has called the block between H and G streets along North Capitol Street NW home. The site has gone through several…

Cathedral Mansions

Cathedral Mansions, a grand garden-style apartment building with over 400 units, was one of the first buildings constructed by Harry Wardman after D.C.'s 1920 zoning laws changed. Built in the Classical Revival style, the three buildings that make up…

Carlton Hotel (The St. Regis)

The Carlton Hotel was designed by architect Mihran Mesrobian (1889-1975) and built in 1926 by developer Harry Wardman (1872-1938). Designed in the Beaux-Arts style, this eight-story hotel at 16th and K streets NW is a significant example of this…

Sedgwick Gardens (and Interiors)

Designed by Mihran Mesrobian in 1931 for Max Gorin, the president of the Southern Construction Company, Sedgwick Gardens is a significant Art Deco building. Mesrobian designed many significant buildings in Washington, including the Hay-Adams…

Capitol Park Apartments

Capitol Park Apartments was built on the site of Dixon’s Court, long considered a notorious alley slum. Photographs of impoverished conditions in the alley with the Capitol dome in the background were widely distributed, and were even used in Soviet…

Capitol Park Plaza and Twins

Capitol Park was the first and largest residential complex in the Southwest area, fashioned as a model planning project whose innovative combination of high-rise and low-rise buildings, arranged around a network of landscaped courts and walkways,…

Harbour Square

The buildings stand tallest at the west end, where the complex opens in a U shape to maximize views of the river, and they drop to three stories near 4th Street where they embrace and incorporate three historic landmarks: Wheat Row (1793), the…

Union Trust Company

Organized in 1899, the Union Trust and Storage Company is one of DC’s earliest trust organizations. Operating both as a storage concern and a trust company, the organization served as a depository for both material and fiduciary resources held by…

Western Union Building (Commercial National Bank)

The Commercial National Bank, designed by noted Washington architect Waddy B. Wood in 1917, is an excellent early example of the simplified and stylized classicism that distinguishes some of DC’s most noteworthy early-twentieth century buildings.…

Southern Railway Building

Designed by Waddy B. Wood and constructed as the executive headquarters for the Southern Railway Company—one of the most successful railroad conglomerates in the early 20th century U.S.—this building is a highly visible remnant of the railroad…

Capital Traction Company Union Station

Located in the Georgetown Historic District in Northwest Washington, the Capital Traction Company Union Station (Capital Traction) property includes the central structure (also referred to as the Georgetown Car Barn), the adjacent stone retaining…

Armstrong Manual Training School

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Armstrong Manual Training School and M Street High School were the only two high schools in DC that admitted black students. From its founding, Armstrong operated as an important institution and symbol for…

Barney Studio House (And Interiors)

Constructed between 1902 and 1903, this semi-detached row house was the second to be built in Sheridan Circle and remains architecturally distinct from the neighboring Beaux-Arts mansions. Designed by Washington architect Waddy B. Wood in the…

Bachelor Apartment House

The Bachelor Apartment House is one of the last apartment buildings remaining in what was once a unique residential neighborhood of luxurious single-family homes, apartment buildings, hotels and social clubs which developed in the nineteenth and…

Masonic Temple (Museum of Women in the Arts)

Designed by Wood, Donn and Deming between 1903 to 1907, the grand Masonic Temple served throughout most of the twentieth century as the headquarters of DC’s Grand Lodge, which counted many important national figures among its members. Situated on a…

Woodrow Wilson House

The Woodrow Wilson House is a three-story red brick building, originally built for Henry Parker Fairbanks by architect Waddy B. Wood in 1915. Located in the Embassy Row section of Northwest Washington, the house was designed in the Georgian Revival…

Department of the Interior (New Interior Building)

Commissioned by the Roosevelt administration in 1934, designed by architect Waddy Butler Wood, and supervised throughout by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes, the Interior Building was dedicated on April 16, 1936. The building's exterior…

Founding Church of Scientology, Washington, DC

This row house at 1812 19th Street NW is one of three properties around the nation closely connected to L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology (the other two properties are in New Jersey and Arizona). Here, at this property within the Dupont…

Victor Building

Standing at the corner of G and 9th streets NW in the heart of the city, the Victor Building’s construction made it even more convenient for the original owner, Victor Evans, to complete his work. One of the preeminent patent attorneys in the…

Old Chinese Legation

Located at the corner of 19th and Vernon streets NW, the Old Chinese Legation was only the second purpose-built legation (after the British Embassy) in Washington, DC. The old British Embassy on Connecticut Avenue NW has since been demolished, making…