National Register of Historic Places Registration Form

NFS Form 10-90O-8 OMB Approval No. 1024-001B
(*86)
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 Rage 33
organize the facades. 3500 to 3518 is a group of rowhouses treated as a
single unified three story building with 10 separate entrances. It is
domestic in scale and continues the low rise appearance along the avenue
established by the Fire Station. The Colonial Revival style used here is
especially reminiscent of the 18th century five part houses in Maryland such
as the Hammond Harwood House of 1774 in Annapolis. The long low mass of the
building is divided into five sections. The central section of three bays and
the two end ones of two bays each project while the remaining two sections
recede. The central section is further emphasized by a brick pediment with a
central fan light which is placed on the roof and dominates the roofline. The
style chosen further accentuates the domestic character of this building and
distinguishes it from Wardman's earlier building next door which is a 4 story
building with a single central entrance accentuated by the use of limestone
Georgian details. The colors of the two buildings further distinguish them;
the earlier building is built of tan brick and the later one of red brick with
white trim echoing the fire station and recalling Christoper Wren's influence
on 18th century colonial American architecture. Wardman's earlier building,
3520 Connecticut, set the pattern for most of the apartment buildings along
the commercial strip in Cleveland Park. These apartment buildings,
constructed between 1920 and 1927, are four or five stories in height,
constructed of red or yellow brick with single central entrances and decorated
with stone details drawn from 18th-century Colonial Georgian buildings.
A variety of architects and owners were responsible for these apartment
buildings. Frank Tomlinson and Eugene Waggaman worked with Harry Wardman.
Stern and Tomlinson designed several for L.G. White. Robert Scholz was both
architect and owner on several in partnership with David A. Baer. George
Santmyers designed two for John J. Mclnerney.
During this period the first garden apartments in Washington D.C. were
constructed in the heart of residential Cleveland Park. "(James Goode op.
cit.) Known as the Cleveland Park they were designed by James E. Cooper and
built by Monroe and R. Bates Warren in 1924-25 at 3018 to 3028 Porter Street.
These eclectic three story buildings with their domestic scale, domestic
stylistic details and abundant land on all four sides introduced a new concept
in apartment dwelling which approximated the experience of owning ones own
individual residence in a suburban setting. These apartments were sold as
coops which further simulated the experience of being a homeowner. There were
no elevators or lobbies and only a small staff. The amenities were the
spacious lawns and paths and the location of garages behind the buildings on
the alley. In the garden apartments, the resident approaches his building
across an open lawn rather than directly from the avenue as was the case with
the Connecticut Avenue apartment buildings. The experience of the resident of
a garden apartment is more analogous to that of a homeowner who enters
directly into his house than it is to an apartment dweller who enters through
a central door into a lobby and then approaches his abode from an inside hall.
*(James Goode, first draft: Best Addresses, A Century of Washington's
Distinguished Apartment Houses, 1880-1890; to be published in 1987 by the
Smithsonian Institution Press)