National Register of Historic Places Registration Form

NFS Form 10-9004 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018
(M6)
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 2 $
least ten lots in the Connecticut Avenue Addition on Macomb and Newark Streets
between 1904 and 1909. Ella Bennett Sherman is listed as the architect for
his first speculative houses (3021-27 Newark, 190A), and John Simpson, the
Cleveland Park Company's builder, was responsible for their construction. For
his own house, (3120 Newark of 1904) he hired architects Ernest C. Hunter and
George N. Bell whom he also usea for his subsequent group of houses (27A5-51
Macomb in 1907 and 2739 Macomb in 1909). Warren built primarily semidetached
houses on speculation, thus embodying the new directions called for in the
real estate brochure of 1904. Following the design of Warren's home in 1904,
Hunter and Bell became very active designing houses in Cleveland Park for
various clients (they were responsible for designing the first brick house at
3209 Highland Place in 1905).
It is perhaps ironic that Waggaman's financial difficulties, which so
altered the prospects of the Cleveland Park Company, ultimately may have
resulted in the wide range of size and type of dwelling and the diverse mix of
population which the Cleveland Park community prizes so highly today. John
Sherman's flexibility in adapting to and capitalizing on those changed
circumstances, is additional testimony to the tenacity of his vision.
In 1908 Charles and Louise Taylor began filling in the gaps in the
western section of Cleveland Park (from 34th Street west on Newark) left by
the Cleveland Park Company before expanding into "Oak View" and "Cleveland
Heights" (Macomb, Lowell Streets and Woodley Road between Wisconsin Avenue and
33rd Street) which were two undeveloped subdivisions. They had appeared on
the maps before Cleveland Park but they did not achieve the same measure of
early success. Prior to the Taylor's development of upper Macomb Street
(1911-1916), Oak View had a few houses which had been built at the turn of the
century on the corner of Macomb and 36th Streets, just opposite Cleveland's
former summer "White House." These were individual homes designed by
architects: 3601 Macomb - 1899 -Sherman and Sonneman
3562 Macomb - 1901 - Frank Wagner
3600 Macomb - 1901 - A.B. Mullett
The architect, J.C. Harkness, designed 3426 Macomb, just down the street, in
1897 which is the oldest house on Macomb.
The Taylors, Charles and Louise, are more typical of the pattern of
speculative builders at the turn of the century; they bought a plot of land,
built a house, sold it and then moved on. They moved around the neighborhood
living in several of the houses which they built (on 34th Place, Lower Macomb
and then 35th and Macomb). They did, however, employ two architects, Raymond
G. Moore and Davis Palmer, to design some of their houses during their twelve
years of building houses in this neighborhood. W.C. and A.N. Miller, George
and C.H. Small and H.K. and H.G. Boss joined the Taylors in completing the
construction of houses in Oak View and Cleveland Heights by the early 1920's.
These houses today are in the heart of Cleveland Park, and the names of the
old subdivisions have been forgotten.
Connecticut Avenue Highlands was the other early subdivision which
experienced the construction of a few houses during the first years of the
20th century. The architects, Sherman, Lockwood & Paschal, designed 2942,