| | 
| | | H Street to be considered for historic district status | | November 13, 2009 | | | | Voice Correspondent | | In the midst of a decades-long process of planning, developing and community organizing, residents and loyal patrons of H Street NE took a break Tuesday night to look back at the history of a neighborhood that wasn’t always in need of a serious face lift.
As a part of the ongoing effort to revitalize the corridor, an alliance of local organizations commissioned the architectural history firm EHT Traceries to analyze the neighborhood in order to determine if it is eligible to become a historic district, and Traceries experts presented their findings at a community meeting this week.
The study’s results will eventually be sent to the D.C. Office of Planning’s Historic Preservation Office to determine if the neighborhood will indeed become its own historic district adjacent to the Capitol Hill Historic District, which extends north to F Street. It’s not yet clear where the borders of the new historic district would be. In historic districts, preservation officials review all permits for new construction, exterior alteration, demolition or subdivision to encourage compatibility with existing architecture.
“Promoting history and the quality of our architecture is in everyone’s best interest,” said Nick Alberti, a member of the Northeast Capitol Hill (ANC 6A) advisory neighborhood commission, which sponsored the study along with H Street Main Street, the Stanton Park Neighborhood Association and Abdo Development, a Washington-based construction company that specializes in restoring and preserving historic structures.
Architectural historians and surveyors Maria Dayton and Paul Weisher said Traceries digitally documented the current buildings and structures along the H Street corridor, defined as the stretch between 2nd and 15th streets NE, and compared them with historic records, D.C. building permits and old maps to examine the street’s evolution.
“This area is special, there are some really cool buildings,” said Dayton. “I’ve spent a lot of time here, and I love it.”
822 H St., one of the oldest buildings in the area, was first built in 1885 for $3,500. A comparison of maps from 1904, 1928 and 1960 show the progression of the original pressed-brick residence with a brick barn in the rear, to what became a restaurant and garage in the 1960s and now is Stan’s Discount Clothing.
The “arcaded massing” facade of the Hospitality Federal Credit Union building at 1114 H Street mirrors the design of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and National Geographic Society office building. It was completed in 1974 and marked the first new building built after the devastating 1968 riots that followed Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.
There are a myriad of other historically significant structures, from the Romanesque-style United Methodist Church at 800 11th St. to the neoclassical-style bank building at 720 H St., which was built in 1912 as a local trust and securities bank and in 1935 doubled in size to accommodate growing local business.
The Traceries team also compiled some “before and after” images that compare photographs from the late 1940s to ones taken during the last few months. While many of the businesses have changed, the shape of H Street’s facades has largely been preserved, the team said.
According to D.C.’s regulations, neighborhoods can be classified as historic if they are associated with “historical periods, social movements … or patterns of growth and change that contributed significantly to … heritage, culture or development” or if they “embody the distinguishing characteristics of architectural styles, building types, or methods of construction … or design significant to the appearance and development of the District of Columbia.”
Historic preservation officer David Maloney will make a recommendation to the Historic Preservation Review Board on whether the area should be deemed historic, and the board will ultimately determine if H Street meets the criteria.
“Everyone would admit the [H Street] corridor is not intact,” said Maloney, referencing the corridor’s vacant lots and “noncontributing” newly built structures, which may affect the corridor’s chances of becoming a historic district.
But, he added, “this is a community corridor the city wants to see realized.” | | | | | Log in to comment on this article |
| |
|
| | | |
|
