A Brief History of 4600 Connecticut Avenue

A Brief History Acknowledgements This history could not have been completed without the gracious assistance of the following individuals, to whom I am deeply grateful: Lee Abramson Susan Decker Laura Kells Maryanne Kendall Jay and Linda Mathews Benjamin Plotkin Pauline Powell Stewart Robertson I also received helpful assistance from the staff of the D.C. Archives; the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.; and the Washingtoniana Division of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. —John A. de Ferrari Copyright © 2007 by John A. de Ferrari 2 A Brief History Before 4600 Before the arrival of European settlers, Piscataway Indians lived in our area and had a large soapstone quarry, later called the Rose Hill Quarry, where Albemarle Street crosses Connecticut Avenue. Once the District of Columbia was laid out, the land on which 4600 is built and the surrounding neighborhood became sparsely settled farm lands in “Washington County,” outside of the city proper, which ended at Boundary Street (present-day Florida Avenue). Because our immediate neighborhood is very hilly, it was not well-suited to development and remained rural through the nineteenth century. The closest main road until the end of the nineteenth century was the Georgetown-Rockville Pike (today’s Wisconsin Avenue), which followed the route of an old Indian trail. A key landmark was the Soapstone Valley Creek, which ran through the future site of 4600 as it made its way, twisting and turning, down to Broad Branch in present-day Rock Creek Park.1 1 There’s a great hiking trail alongside the lower portion of the creek, extending from a point at Albemarle Street just east of Connecticut Avenue down to Broad Branch Road in the park. Almost the entire creek above Albemarle and Connecticut is now underground, most of it having been buried through the years as the land above was developed. The source of the creek is near Wisconsin Avenue, and a small portion can still be seen above ground just south of Woodrow Wilson High School at Nebraska Avenue. Presumably, the fact that the creek ran through the 4600 site was 3 During the Civil War, a circle of over 60 earthen forts was erected around the outskirts of Washington to protect the city from Confederate attack. The line of forts ran very close to our location, with Fort Reno—the largest—within easy walking distance. Equally close was Fort Kearny—its remains are on the estate of the Peruvian Ambassador’s residence on Garrison Street. It is also very possible that Union troops camped on or near the site of 4600. Many came through Washington, especially later in the war, and a known encampment was located just to the south of present-day Albemarle Street, along the Soapstone Valley Creek. A turning point in neighborhood history came in 1886 when Congressman Francis G. Newlands of Nevada, hatched his plan to have Connecticut Avenue extended from Calvert Street out to the Maryland border, where he would develop a fashionable enclave of high-class residences to be called Chevy Chase. Newlands set up the Chevy Chase Land Company to buy up land along the planned route of the Avenue, including the land where 4600 now stands. Much effort was needed to grade the hilly land, but by 1892 it had been done; not only was the new road laid out, but an electric streetcar was in operation all the way to the Maryland line. Residential development all along Connecticut Avenue soon began. one reason the site remained undeveloped until a relatively late date. And because the creek continues to run underneath 4600, the building is required to operate sump pumps on a continuous basis to keep the basement from flooding. The sump pumps often can be heard operating in the storage room. 4 Earlier Apartment Buildings in Our Neighborhood The city established its first zoning regulations for buildings in 1920. From the start, the Connecticut Avenue corridor was designated for medium-density apartment buildings, interspersed at regular intervals with blocks of commercial structures. The zoning decision was a compromise between government planners who wanted commercial development along the entire length of the street, and the Chevy Chase Land Company, which wanted to preserve the residential character of upper Connecticut Avenue.2 Based on the 1920 zoning law, the 4600 block was designated for medium-density residential construction. The 1920s brought the first surge in apartment house construction. Between 1927 and 1931, six large apartment houses were built in our neighborhood, including the historic Spanish Revival-style Ponce de Leon (1928)—designed with sleeping porches to help residents survive the Washington summer—and the Frontenac (1930)3 in the block just south of us. To our north and east, developer Harry M. Barlove built three apartment buildings in 1927-28, including the so-called Truman House at 4701 Connecticut, the apartment building at 4707 Connecticut just north of it, and Parker House across the street on our side. Two blocks north of that, developer Harry Wardman in 1929 built a set of four distinctive five-story 2 The Chevy Chase Land Company also took steps to preserve other aspects of the character of the neighborhood: according to Benjamin Plotkin, the original deed of trust for the 4600 property barred African-American and Jewish residents. The Supreme Court ruled in 1952 that such covenants were unenforceable. 3 The Frontenac, which had the misfortune to be built as the Depression was beginning, had its share of financial problems. The developer went bankrupt just as the building was nearing completion in January 1931. 5 apartment houses called Davenport Terrace (now known as Connecticut Heights). Construction slowed markedly during the Depression years of the early 1930s, but picked up later in the decade. Two Art Moderne-style buildings went up on the east side of the avenue—4801 Connecticut Avenue (1938), at Davenport Street; and the Chesapeake (1941), across the street from 4600. By the mid 1950s, the remaining empty lots, such as the 4600 site, were in high demand. Washington by then was suffering from a severe post-war housing shortage, with sometimes long waiting lists for prospective tenants despite numerous apartment houses being constructed. Along the Avenue itself, apartment buildings began to fill in almost all of the remaining available spaces. Apartment houses constructed in our immediate neighborhood in the 1950s include Connecticut House (1957) on the west side of Connecticut at Albemarle Street; Albemarle House (1958), across the street from it and set back on a slope; the Brandywine (1953), a large complex just north of that; and the Essex (1956), two blocks north of 4600 on the west side. A Luxury Apartment Building is Announced The project to build 4600 was first announced in 1954, when Ralph Bush, a developer from Norfolk, Virginia, purchased the vacant 91,000-square-foot site4 of the building for $250,000. The Bush Development Corporation said it was going to build a luxury apartment building to equal or surpass the “most 4 For the record, the building has a footprint of 52,387 sq. ft., the Chesapeake Garden is 17,988 sq. ft., and the Brandywine Garden is 20,988 sq. ft., for a total of 91,363 sq. ft. For more on the gardens, see the Grounds and Gardens section below. 6 fashionable rental quarters now available in Washington.”5 Bush hired Milton J. Prassas, an established Washington architect, to design the building. Prassas had experience with large residential developments, having collaborated with Bush on Channel Square, a part of the Southwest urban renewal project. As described by Prassas, 4600 was to be an 8-story apartment house notable for its relatively large number of generously sized two- and three-bedroom apartments, its “high-speed” elevators, and “100 percent” parking spaces for all residents (and even an allowance for those who might own more than one automobile!). An early sketch of the proposed building. As with most such large-scale undertakings, the final product differed somewhat from the original plans. Most significantly, 4600 ended up with one additional floor—bringing the total number of units to 270—but with fewer parking spaces. Apparently, negotiations were needed with neighborhood groups who were concerned about the size of the proposed structure. Although a detailed account of the give-and-take that 5 Paul Herron, “$5 Million Luxury Apartment Disclosed” in The Washington Post, Oct. 24, 1954, page R1. 7 must have occurred has not surfaced, it appears that Bush tried to build the largest building he could. The application his company submitted for a building permit in 1955 was for an 11-story edifice. The permit was issued two years later—for the proposed 11-story building—but, of course, the actual structure would have just nine floors. Construction began in late 1957, a full three years after the building had first been announced. The work, which set Bush Development Corporation back approximately $4 million, was completed in 1958 (not 1948, as the Multiple Listings Service database obstinately claims). Bush got help from the Federal Housing Administration to finance the project. It must have turned out to his liking; he chose to live in the building he owned for almost two years after it was built.6 4600’s Early Days Applications for tenants were first taken in June 1958. Rents ranged from $110 per month for an efficiency to $270 for a three-bedroom unit. The first tenant was Caroline Mosier Fairbrother, who moved into apartment 113 in October, when construction had scarcely been completed.7 In fact, the building’s concrete corridors were still uncarpeted at the time.

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