During the
1880s, architect H. H. Richardson designed four residences in Washington,
D.C. Within a five year period in the
mid-1920s, however, all four of these structures were demolished. (The façade of one, built for John Glessner’s
business partner, Benjamin H. Warder, was salvaged and rebuilt at a different
location.) In spite of this disregard
for the importance of these buildings, Richardson’s legacy survives in our
capital city through a number of prominent buildings designed by local
architects in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. In this article, we will look at three of the
most significant structures, all located on the 900 block of F Street, NW.
Atlantic Building
930 F Street, NW
The oldest
of the three, the Atlantic Building, was completed in 1888 and, at eight
stories, was the largest commercial structure in the city at that time. The building was constructed as a speculative
office building by a group of Washington businessmen, headed by attorney
Alexander Thompson Britton. Many of the
142 offices were rented to attorneys who appreciated the convenience of being
near the Patent Office and Pension Building on the next block. The eighth floor contained two large assembly
rooms which hosted numerous important meetings including one at which the
National Zoo was founded. President
Benjamin Harrison’s 1890 inaugural committee used one of the rooms for their
headquarters.
The
architect of the building was James G. Hill.
Born in 1841, Hill headed the Office
of the Supervising Architect of the U.S. Department of the Treasury from 1876
to 1883. During that period he designed
or supervised numerous projects including courthouses, post offices, and other
public buildings in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere. Many of these are designed in the Richardsonian
Romanesque style, including the Old Post Office in Albany, New York, one of
several Hill buildings listed on the National Register.
Photo by John McWilliams for HABS, 1990 (Library of Congress)
The
Atlantic Building was among the last to be constructed with load bearing
masonry walls but one of the first DC office buildings to contain a passenger
elevator. A wooden staircase wraps
around a skylit stairwell, providing secondary access to the offices featuring fireplaces
with wood mantels and decorative tiles.
The ground floor, originally designed with projecting show windows, was
designed for retail use.
A variety
of materials are used to present a highly ornamented and decorative façade. The ground floor retail space features a cast
iron façade, with Sullivanesque-style flourishes including the name “ATLANTIC
BUILDING” set amidst lush foliate decoration.
The second and third floors are grouped under a series of three arches,
with recessed spandrels displaying a checkerboard pattern of two contrasting
stones, a device frequently used by Richardson.
The remaining floors are faced in brick with floors four through six grouped
together under arches with richly decorated recessed terra cotta spandrel
panels.
The seventh floor is simpler
with smaller single story arched window openings and two groupings of clustered
columns. The eight floor, the location
of the large assembly rooms, is the most simple, and is set beneath a tall
parapet wall with a large decorative center panel featuring the year
construction began, 1887.
Photo by John McWilliams for HABS, 1990 (Library of Congress)
The
building was in poor condition when it was documented by the Historic American
Buildings Survey in 1990, including photographs by John McWilliams. It was extensively restored in recent years
as part of a larger development that includes new and renovated buildings
wrapping around the corner onto 10th Street, extending south to Ford’s
Theatre. It is listed as a Category III
Landmark in the District of Columbia.
National Union Building
918 F Street, NW
The
National Union Building was designed by a devoted admirer of H. H. Richardson,
architect Glenn Brown. Born in 1854 in
Virginia, Brown rejected the classical training he received at M.I.T. and
instead chose to follow Richardson, a fellow Southerner, whose designs were “not
limited and bound by rules and regulation.”
Brown spent two years as the Clerk of Works for O. W. Norcross, the firm
selected by Richardson to construct many of his most important buildings
(including Glessner House). Although
Brown greatly admired Richardson’s work, he did not feel that the architects
who continued in the style were nearly as successful. As noted in Brown’s 1931 Memoirs, “While all of Richardson’s work was artistic, interesting
and cultured, he set a fashion in architecture that produced monstrosities throughout
the country. Not a single one of his
followers produced an example worthy of notice.” (Presumably he excluded himself from that
evaluation).
Brown
served for many years as secretary of the American Institute of Architects, and
was largely responsible for the purchase of the Octagon House in Washington,
D.C. as its national headquarters. He
also took a deep interest in the L’Enfant Plan for the city and his work in
advocating the plan led to the establishment of the Senate Park Commission and
their 1901 Plan for Washington. A
prolific author, he wrote the two-volume History
of the U. S. Capitol in 1901-1904, and was also deeply interested in historic
preservation, leading the restoration efforts at Gunston Hall and Pohick
Episcopal Church, both located in Fairfax County in his native Virginia.
Among
Brown’s other projects in Washington, D.C. is the Dumbarton Bridge, which
carries Q Street across Rock Creek Park between Dupont Circle and Georgetown. The bridge, completed in 1915, was inspired
by a Roman aqueduct and is one of numerous projects by Brown to be listed on
the National Register.
The National
Union Building was constructed in 1890 for the National Union Fire Insurance
Company, which occupied the structure until after World War II. Given
the original owner, it is not surprising that the structure was constructed
using a fireproof steel frame, combined with brick bearing walls. Although the building is quite narrow, its façade
measuring only 26 feet across, the use of rusticated stone and design elements
spanning more than one story give it a commanding presence on the street.
The first
two stories are combined under a pair of large arches set atop three pilasters with
richly ornamented capitals, the center one of which features an owl set amongst
the foliage. Most noticeable is the pair
of recessed spandrels featuring six-petalled flowers composed of stones in
contrasting colors. The effect is
reminiscent of similar flowers seen on the façade of Richardson’s Austin Hall
at Harvard, which also features the checkerboard stone patterning copied for
the Atlantic Building.
Floors three and
four, set beneath a huge panel reading “NATIONAL UNION BUILDING,” are united by
two-story groupings of clustered columns at either end, framing slightly bowed
ribbon windows. The remaining floors
feature smaller windows expressing the four bays, the sixth floor window
openings set beneath arches and framed with engaged columns, a treatment similar
to Richardson’s Allegheny County Courthouse.
Set above the sixth floor is a row of sixteen small windows illuminating
the attic, set beneath a decorative cornice.
The west
side of the building, facing into an alley, features a brick-faced oriel window
extending from floors two through six. The
interior of the building was designed with tiled vestibules on the east side of
each floor, with all of the offices facing west, accessed by an open cage
elevator and a wide metal staircase.
Washington Loan & Trust Company Building
900 F Street, NW
This
building, the largest of the three, has maintained a commanding presence over
the intersection of F and 9th Streets since it was completed in 1891
for Washington’s largest and oldest trust company. The architect was James G. Hill, the same
architect who designed the Atlantic Building (see above). Given the stylistic similarities with Adler
& Sullivan’s Auditorium Building in Chicago, completed just two years earlier,
one can’t help but assume Hill was familiar with that iconic building and used
it as inspiration.
The
original building for the Trust Company was considerably smaller than the
current structure, extending only four bays along F Street. When six additional bays were added in
1926-1927 under the direction of architect Arthur B. Heaton, every element of
the original design was replicated exactly, forming an overall seamless
composition.
Classified
as a Category II Landmark in the District of Columbia and listed on the
National Register, the building is one of the very finest Richardsonian Romanesque
buildings in the capital city. Faced in
rusticated gray granite, the façade extends nine bays along 9th
Street, where one can sense the rhythm of the fenestration, set into four
distinct sections.
The ground floor
windows and doorways are set beneath huge arches with a row of simple unadorned
transomed-windows above, all set beneath a belt-course with dentil trim. The four floors above are grouped under
arched arcades, highlighted with delicate colonettes at the piers. These four floors are especially reminiscent
of the Auditorium Building design. The
third section consists of two additional floors with simpler pairs of double
hung windows set beneath another course of bolder dentil trim. The upper most floor features windows set
beneath arches with pairs of columns forming the piers, all set beneath another
row of dentil trim and a dentated cornice.
In later
years, the building was occupied by Riggs Bank.
It now houses a Courtyard by Marriott hotel and brew pub.
Together
these three buildings provide an outstanding opportunity to experience how
architects perpetuated the Richardsonian Romanesque style in the years
immediately following the architect’s death in 1886. As a grouping, they also provide a
well-preserved visual reminder of the late 19th-century period in
Washington, D.C.’s architectural history.
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