National Register of Historic Places Registration Form

NFS Form 10-900-a 0MB Approval No. 1024-0018
(MO)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service
National Register of Historic Places
Continuation Sheet
CLEVELAND PARK HISTORIC DISTRICT
WASHINGTON D.C.
Section number 8 Page _9_____
1. The Cleveland Park Historic District is a site of major interrelated
historic, architectural, and cultural significance. The particular qualities
which make it significant arise from its unique character as a liveable in-
town community (almost like a village; of single family houses, apartment
houses and small businesses. It has significant architectural examples
representing three centuries of growth and development in a single cohesive
neighborhood. It has a core of architect-designed late Victorian houses built
between 1894 and 1901 which is unique in Washington D.C. The overlay of
history is clearly evident in Cleveland Park with its 18th- and 19th-century
estates which happily coexist with fine examples of late 19th-century
Victorian houses, 20th-century Art Deco apartment houses and shops, as well as
International Style and other modern residences.
A. Its three distinct historical phases of
development parallel the history of the growth of
the Nation's Capital and expand our knowledge and
understanding of the history of the city of Washington
D.C.
B. It represents an historically intact rather complex
neighborhood with residential and commercial areas
intertwined. It comprises 18th- and 19th-century
estates, suburban residential dwellings, semidetached
houses, garden apartments, large suburban apartment
houses and a significant linear commercial development
including one of the first shopping centers which
provided parking.
C. Cleveland Park is a visual textbook of the changing
architectural forms and conventions. It is a veritable
museum of popular modes of expression from the late
19th- and early 20th-centuries. The eclecticism of the
period is clearly represented in the neighborhood with
architectural forms and ornamentation representing the
following popular modes: Carpenter Gothic, Queen Anne,
Shingle, Dutch Colonial Revival, Mission Revival,
Colonial Revival, Developer's Georgian, Tudor Revival
Art Deco and International Style. Large Queen Anne
houses of the 1890's were followed by the simpler
American Foursquare houses at the turn of the century,
and then by a proliferation of craftsman bungalows
in the 1910's and 1920's.
2. Cleveland Park is a significant example in Washington D.C. of the
development of a streetcar suburb created by an enlightened and benevolent
real estate developer who fostered a sense of pride in the community. This