National Register of Historic Places Registration Form

NFS Form 10-9004 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018
(MS)
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 23
especially Adamesque swags, Palladian windows, and elliptical oculus windows.
After a lapse of nine.years he returned to Cleveland Park in 1905 to design a
house for himself, in which he lived from 1906 to 1918, and to design a number
of houses for others in styles dramatically different from those he used in
1896. His later houses reflect Tudor and Shingle style influences.
In 1897 Waddy Butler Wood (1869-1944) was the Cleveland Park Company's
architect. He was born in St. Louis but moved to Virginia with his family.
He studied engineering for two years at what is now the Virginia Polytechnic
Institute. Then he came to Washington to be a draftsman. He also spent time
at the Library of Congress studying architectural books and journals. His
first commission was for the Capital Traction Company Car Barn at Key Bridge
and M Street in Georgetown. Shortly thereafter he designed four houses for
Cleveland Park in varied styles. He went on to design a number of houses in
Kalorama including Woodrow Wilson's house. His design for 3100 Newark was the
first Shingle Style house in the neighborhood and was published in an
architectural journal. On this house he introduced a new decorative motif
created by using rope dipped in plaster and applied in a circular pattern to
the exterior of the house. Robert T. Head and Ella Bennett Sherman
subsequently employed this decorative technique, which reflects the influence
of the Arts and Crafts Movement, on some of their houses. Waddy Wood also
designed the first Mission Revival house for the neighborhood at 3432 Newark
Street.
Robert Thompson Head (b. 1870) from Leesburg, Virginia appears to have
been largely self-taught, first by his father (until his death in 1882) who
was a carpenter and builder in Leesburg, and subsequently as a draftsman from
1888 to 1891 in Washington.
In 1892 Head opened his own office as an architect. He was the architect who
designed the greatest number of houses for the Cleveland Park Company during
the four years (1898-1901) he was associated with John Sherman. He also
designed the Lodge (or waiting station) on Connecticut Avenue and the
firehouse on Newark Street, both of which have disappeared. From a" family
biography it is evident that Robert Head gave up the practice of architecture
and moved to New York where he became a sound recording engineer for the first
commercially successful talking picture company, the Vitaphone Corporation.
*(Hamilton, op. cit. pp. 46-47)
When Head departed in 1901 there was a lapse in building for 22 months.
This break preceded the second phase of development, from 1902 to 1909,
undertaken by the Shermans. During this period, all of the houses built by
them were located in the "Connecticut Avenue Addition to Cleveland Park," on
Ashley Terrace, on lower Newark Street from 3127 Newark to Connecticut Avenue,
and on lower Macomb From 3300 Ross Place to 2923 Macomb. During this period
all of their houses were designed without the aid of identifiable architects.
From 1902 until 1909, John Sherman and his wife, Ella Bennett Sherman, were
the only names listed as architects and owners on their building permits.
This dramatic change in the pattern of development was probably due to
Thomas E. Waggaman's declaration of bankruptcy in 1905 and his death in 1906.
Perhaps as early as 1901, the Shermans realized that Waggaman's finances were