Proposed Barney Circle Historic District
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United States Department of the Interior 1 Barney Circle Historic District National Park Service Name of Property National Register of Historic Places Washington, DC Continuation Sheet County and State Continuation sheets – Section 7 page 2 Summary of Significance The proposed Barney Circle Historic District stands today as a small enclave of early twentieth-century homes sheltered between the open quiet spaces of Congressional Cemetery and the diagonal slash of Kentucky Avenue that meets Pennsylvania Avenue at the Anacostia River. Its position on the slope of the southern side of the Capitol Hill plateau orients the neighborhood toward the Anacostia River and the view across the river to the hills on the eastern side of the Anacostia. Part of the original L’Enfant city, the Capitol Hill plateau remains bounded as it was in the early days of the city: the Capitol complex at the western edge of the plateau, the Anacostia River and Navy Yard to the south, and the river, Congressional Cemetery and Reservation 13 with its municipal functions to the east. Within that arc of natural features and governmental functions, the residential development pushed slowly eastward, starting with the early Federal manor and row houses around the Capitol and Navy Yard through successive stylistic waves of row houses until the entire area was filled in by the 1930s. The Barney Circle neighborhood is representative of the last surge of development that occurred on the Capitol Hill plateau – the “daylight” or porch-front houses. Its present appearance, virtually unchanged since the dates of construction, is evidence that it was not until the early decades of the twentieth century that developers found this area of the L’Enfant city at all desirable for residential development. Not only had basic city services, such as street paving and utility expansion, lagged behind other sections of the city, particularly the Northwest, but also the presence of less-desirable city services (such as the almshouse, workhouse, jail and quarantine house) and of the unhealthy Anacostia flats just a few blocks away had their own negative impacts. While the development of the Barney Circle neighborhood and the eastern end of Capitol Hill cannot be traced to the vision of a single wealthy individual or development company, as is common for many of the city’s more suburban-type neighborhoods, it can, perhaps more importantly, be seen as a result of the work of the East Washington Citizens Association (EWCA), a group formed in 1870 to lobby strenuously for improvements in the eastern section of the city – improvements that would assist in the development of the Barney Circle neighborhood and surrounding areas of Capitol Hill and beyond. In addition to the lobbying of ECWA on behalf of the usual neighborhood priorities of more paved roads and extension of utilities, the elimination of the health-threatening Anacostia flats United States Department of the Interior 2 Barney Circle Historic District National Park Service Name of Property National Register of Historic Places Washington, DC Continuation Sheet County and State (as the flood plains bordering the Anacostia River were known) required a sophisticated and long-term information and lobbying campaign. Transportation infrastructure was another focus of the EWCA efforts. One of the most visible and inspiring successes of the EWCA was its campaign to have the Pennsylvania Avenue bridge re-constructed over the Anacostia River after a hiatus of fifty years – a mission accomplished by forging a partnership with Congressional sponsors despite the objections of railroad interests and the appointed commissioners. The bridge, finished in 1890, meant that Pennsylvania Avenue, running at the base of Barney Circle, was no longer a dead end but a connecting link with development that was soon to occur in the “suburban” subdivisions east of the Anacostia. In 1901 Barney Circle became the node between the Pennsylvania Avenue bridge and the trolley line that was extended from Eighth Street to the turn at Fifteenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. Trolley service spurred Barney Circle’s residential development in the same way as it did in other sections of Washington – the first row houses in the proposed Barney Circle Historic District were built in 1905. The East Washington Citizens Association continued its civic work for many decades, even as other organizations were formed to represent smaller neighborhoods. The formation of the EWCA in 1870 and the subsequent growth of the neighborhood association movement is an important development in the social history of the city. Barney Circle’s significance also lies in its development as a modest neighborhood, providing a residential niche for the upper-middle strata of blue-collar workers and later for a growing number of white-collar workers too, that is both part of the greater Capitol Hill community and a distinct entity. In the first decade of the twentieth century, BC was solidly and its residents lived in smaller, less elaborate homes relative to close-in Capitol Hill. It was a residential enclave, with only two businesses, both cemetery-related, known to ever exist within its borders. It was flanked on two sides—15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue—by neighborhood businesses that served many of its daily service and shopping needs. By 1920, the picture had begun to change. There was an increasing growth in white collar workers, along with more higher-skilled Navy Yard workers (such as moulders, toolmakers, and electricians), fueling the demand for the larger, modern daylighter homes, which went on to become the predominant housing type in Barney Circle. An example is the 1919-1923 row of “porchfronts” in the 1600 block of Potomac Avenue, S.E., which provided homes more commodious than the older dwellings in Barney Circle at a considerably lower price than such closer-in areas as the 200 block of 10th Street, S.E. While becoming increasingly more white collar after 1920, Barney Circle remained a relatively modest neighborhood. In 1930, its houses were slightly more crowded than the average District of Columbia neighborhood – Barney Circle row houses were often home to multiple generations and sometimes to boarders. United States Department of the Interior 3 Barney Circle Historic District National Park Service Name of Property National Register of Historic Places Washington, DC Continuation Sheet County and State Barney Circle was its own distinct neighborhood, establishing itself as a significant home to government workers, and for several years serving almost as annex to Navy Yard worker housing, especially as compared to its neighbors. Barney Circle was a relatively small neighborhood with more than one of four of its working residents employed at the Navy Yard in 1920, when the neighborhood reached its peak as a home to Navy Yard workers. In addition to its high proportion of Navy Yard workers, Barney Circle demonstrated its neighborhood cohesiveness in 1930 with its substantially higher rate of home ownership, relative to the District. In addition to its significance as a part of the planning and development story of early twentieth century Washington, Barney Circle is also an example of the successful adaptation of the design elements of Arts and Crafts Movement bungalows into “daylight” row houses, in particular, a horizontal orientation, front porch, and shed dormers. Most of Barney Circle is the result of the work of Albert Beers (a renowned architect credited with the break-through “daylight” row house design), Thomas A. Jameson and Herman R. Howenstein, (who built a distinctive style of row house). Barney Circle is also an example of Criterion C, because it embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type and period of architecture. Historic functions/current functions The historic functions of the proposed Barney Circle Historic District are: Domestic/single dwelling (residential row houses), Domestic/multiple (flats); Transportation/rail related (the streetcar/trolley line that ran along Pennsylvania Avenue, S.E., and turned around at Barney Circle for the return trip west on Pennsylvania Avenue); Transportation/water-related (Naylor’s Ferry, which operated across the Anacostia River at Barney Circle between 1804- 1822 and 1845-1890); Transportation/road-related (bridges over the Anacostia River between 1804-1814 and 1890-present); Landscape/park (D.C. Reservations 256, 264, and 265, D.C. public triangle parks)/street furniture (fire call box); Agriculture/horticultural facility (the greenhouse formerly located at 723 17th Street, S.E.); and Commerce/Trade/specialty store (the monument companies formerly located on 17th Street, S.E.). The current functions are Domestic/single dwelling (residential row houses); Domestic/multiple; Transportation/road-related (John Philip Sousa Bridge, 1940-present); and Landscape/park/street furniture (D.C. Reservations 256, 264, and 265, D.C. public triangle parks, fire call box). United States Department of the Interior 4 Barney Circle Historic District National Park Service Name of Property National Register of Historic Places Washington, DC Continuation Sheet County and State Historic and current conditions of the property The proposed Barney Circle Historic District is a residential row house community on streets running uphill from the old streetcar terminus on Pennsylvania Avenue, S.E., adjacent to the Anacostia River. Barney Circle has many intact two-story brick porch-front row houses known as Colonial Revival, or “daylight” row houses. These row houses successfully incorporate many design elements from the Bungalow style popular in the early decades of the twentieth century, including a horizontal orientation, front and rear porches, and mansard roofs with shed or gable dormers. The row houses appealed to middle-class and working-class buyers, who formed the original Barney Circle community. The proposed historic district is part of the L’Enfant plan, with 16th Street, 17th Street, and Kentucky Avenue, S.E. radiating north from Barney Circle, intersecting with H and G Streets, S.E. and Potomac Avenue, S.E.