Between the development of Hall Place (1911), and the advertisement of the last house built by the Gruver family (1942), the development of apartment buildings in Glover Park kept pace with the development of row houses.
In 1936, when six apartment buildings in the 2200 block of 40th Street were completed, it was part of a District-wide surge in apartment building prompted by New Deal spending.
After 1942, almost all of the housing added in Glover Park has been in the form of apartment buildings. After the war there was a third surge in apartment buildings.
After 1968, when the District’s population began a thirty-year decline, demand for new apartments declined as well. After 1984, apartment production in Glover Park came to a standstill. It did not pick up again until 2000, when the District’s population began rebounding.
As early as 1917 the apartment segment of the market had begun to be addressed by “The Observatory”, at Wisconsin Avenue and Hall Place. The ground floor of this corner building featured space for lease to a drug store that would have “No Competition in This Neighborhood”. (“Well-known Washington Apartment Houses”, Washington Post, September 9, 1917, p.R3)
“Near Naval Observatory”. The first listing of the apartments managed by N.L. Sansbury, at 2325 37th Street (originally 2525 37th Street), appears in 1923. A photograph made when it changed hands in 1936 shows that its present boxiness had been somewhat relieved by a marquee and a cornice, as well as by the projecting window awnings that were standard at the time. (Washington Post, September 22, 1923, p.17; “Apartment Sale By Middleton”, Washington Post, August 9, 1936, p.R6)
When The Benton, at 3711 Benton Street was advertised in 1925, Walter Case at first merely directed the public to “to go one block west and one block south from Wisconsin Ave. and 37th St.” The following week the owner and builder added the nearby veterans hospital as a a landmark. “New Building, high location. Just below Mount Alto.” (Washington Post, March 1, 1925, R2; Evening Star, March 7, 1925, p. 27)
In early 1926, when the name Glover Park was still unknown, and proximity to the park-like campus of the Naval Observatory was a selling-point, the apartment building at 3507 W Place (2200 Wisconsin) began listing apartments: “Georgetown Heights, Near Naval Observatory, 3507 W Place, Attractive apartments.” (Evening Star, March 13, 1926, p.30)
The Joseph Shapiro Company put the Kingston Apartments (3516 W Place), and the Shelton Apartments (3520 W Place) on the market in 1927. (“Joseph Shapiro Co. Completes Sales Totaling $647,000”, Washington Post, August 21, 1927, p.R4)
“Madison Co.’s Apartments Declared Among Best in Washington.––Madison Building Co. has completed six apartment buildings at 2209-23 Fortieth street northwest, in the Glover Park section.” “The apartment buildings are looked upon as being among the best in the city, having unusual merit architecturally and structurally. They are insulated with rock wool and the walls are furred.” “Each apartment is well finished, has automatic heat and a screened in sleeping porch. The buildings were designed by Harvey P. Baxter, a registered architect.” (“New Buildings Are Completed In Glover Park”, Washington Post, August 2, 1936, p.R1)
Most “duplex” apartments came on the market with less advertising than this. (Washington Post, August 12, 1936, p.X24)
Apartments at 2356 40th Street (Fairsite Court?) began to be advertised by Shannon and Luchs in 1937. (Washington Post, July 11, 1937, p.R13)
H.E. Davis received permits for a three-story brick and cinder block apartment building at 4031 Davis Place. (“Private Work Up $225, 785 For October”,Washington Post, November 6, 1938, p.R1)
The Floyd E. Davis Company announced that the Park View Terrace, at 4117 Davis Place and 4122 Edmunds Street, was ready for occupancy in 1939. It was was designed by George T. Santmyers (1889-1960). (Washington Post, September 24, 1939, p. R18; Hans Wirz and Richard Striner, Washington Deco, Smithsonian Institution, 1984; James Goode, Best Addresses: A Century of Washington’s Distinguished Apartment Houses)
The Park Plaza (3925 Davis Place), designed by Dillon and Abel, was first advertised by the B.F. Saul in the summer of 1939. (“Arnold Co. To Build”, Washington Post, January 15, 1939, p.R4; August 20, 1939, p.R11)
2655 41st Street was first advertised in 1939. (Washington Post, October 29, 1939, p.R16)
“Tunlaw Gardens spells Features De Luxe”. Apartments rented for $59.50 and up at the Weaver Brothers’ “Fireproof Garden Court Apartments” at Tunlaw Road, 39th Street, and Davis Place. (Washington Post, August 24, 1940, p.R18; October 20, 1940, p.R14)
Plans for the complex to be known as Park Crest Gardens were announced in 1941. “Maurice Korman plans erection of ten three-story brick and concrete apartment buildings at 2300-2326 Forty-first Street Northwest, 4101-4121 W street and 2201-2217 Forty-second Street northwest, at an estimated cost of $1,000,000. designed by George T. Santmyers architect, the buildings will contain 278 units divided into 872 rooms.” (“Ten Buildings Planned”, Washington Post,March 30, 1941, p.R3; Hans Wirz and Richard Striner, Washington Deco, Smithsonian Institution, 1984; James Goode, Best Addresses: A Century of Washington’s Distinguished Apartment Houses)
2339 40th Place NW, designed by Joseph H. Abel, and erected by the Arnold Construction Company, was built in 1941-1942. Real estate records show 2315-2323 40th Place as having been built in 1942. (“Last Week’s Permits Total $1,251,500”, Washington Post, July 20, 1941, p.R5)
Frank S. Phillips obtained permits to build two three-story brick apartment buildings, at 2632-2634 and 2626-2628 Tunlaw Road, in 1942. (“Washington Jumps to Second Place in U.S. Building Permits”, Washington Post, March 29, 1942, p.R1; “Nine Months’ Permits”, October 18, 1942, p.R1)
Tunlaw Terrace
The Tunlaw Road Houses, looking east from 42nd Street toward 39th. The cars are parked on a street named Tunlaw Terrace. (John P. Wymer, June 25, 1950, Historical Society of Washington)
In 1940, as it was becoming increasingly clear that the United States would soon be drawn into the Second World War, Congress authorized the construction of public housing for the families of men engaged in national defense activities. As the new housing was commissioned by the National Capital Housing Authority––which had been the Alley Dwelling Authority, focussed on long-term slum clearance––a key characteristic of the construction had to be “demountable”, i.e readily torn down after the emergency.
“When the war housing shortage overtook Washington, the National Capital Housing Authority “converted” by shifting from long-term slum clearance to temporary housing. Deliberately the emphasis was put on the temporary, for the NCHA (the erstwhile Alley Dwelling Authority) wanted no new slums left as an aftermath of war. So it embarked upon a pioneering program which produced some new types of dwelling units. Whatever the other characteristics, all had in common the quality of removability.” (“Pioneering Program of Prefabrication: Four two-story demountable multi-family projects for National Capital Housing Authority, Washington, D.C., American Houses, Inc., Prefabricators, Holden, McLaughlin & Associates, Architects”, Architectural Record, Vol.95, No.3, March 1944, pp.66-72. Matthew Gilmore, “What Once Was: Where did Washington DC’s 1950 Population of 800,000 Live?”, The Intowner, July 31, 2018)
The Tunlaw Road Houses––there were 38 three-room and 48 four-room apartments––were built, of temporary frame construction,”for construction cost only”, in 1943, on five acres between 39th and 42nd Streets, north of Edmunds Street, leased from Charles Glover, Jr.
(This may be the same land “on Tunlaw Road below Mt. Alto” that Charles Carroll Glover in 1933 allowed to be planted with gardens by local men suffering from economic hardships in the Depression. Plowing was done by the District government, and the Georgetown Garden Club financed the fertilizer, seeds, and tools and supervised the gardens. See D.C. Public Library, Georgetown Branch, Peabody Room, Georgetown Garden Club, Box 1, Vol. III, p. 218. )
The Tunlaw Road Houses were razed in 1954 to make way for construction of 4000 Tunlaw in 1960. (Report of the National Capital Housing Authority, For the Ten-Year Period 1934-1944, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1945; Hearings before a subcommittee of the Special Committee on Post-war Economic Policy and Planning, United States Senate, Seventy-eight Congress, first session-Seventy-ninth Congress, first session pursuant to S. Res. 102, a resolution creating a Special Committee on Post-war Economic Policy and Planning, February 7, 1945 p. 2106; Washington Post, February 7, 1943, p.R5; December 1, 1951, p.B1; September 24, 1954, p.25. (The 35th Street Houses, 75 demountable units erected south of Reservoir Road in 1943, were a similar project.)
(Photo, Historical Society of Washington)
When John P. Wymer took this picture, on June 25, 1950, Carillon House was still under construction. Partially visible on the left is the Amoco filling station, which started life as a Lord Baltimore station in 1926.
Carillon House was ready for occupancy in March, 1951. At the time Waverly Taylor built it, most new residential buildings still relied on individual air-conditioning units. The original lobby, decorated by Dorothy Draper, was dismantled in the late 1970s. Since 1951 Glover Park has been treated, every day at noon, to a selection of music from the Schulmerich carillon on the roof of the Carillon House. (Claudia Assis, “The Sky’s the Limit: At Carillon House, History Comes Along With the View”, Washington Post, September 18, 1999, p.H1)
The McAlburt Apartments, on Davis Place, between 39th Street and Tunlaw Road, were built between 1951 and 1954; they are now the Georgetown North Condominiums.
The Tunlaw Park (now the Archstone Glover Park), at 3850 Tunlaw Road , was designed by Santmyers and Thomen, and replaced Benedicta Regenstein’s celebrated garden (see 3850 and 3900 Tunlaw Road). “It was built on a hillside site that was once a formal garden and the builders have gone to considerable expense to preserve for the apartment dwellers the beauty of the shrubbery and trees that once graced the original estate.” (“Tunlaw Park Holds Open House”, Washington Post, July 26, 1953, p.R10)
The Winchester Fulton, at 3901 Tunlaw Road, opened in 1958. (Washington Post, August 24, 1958)
The Beecher House (2400 41st Street) was built by the Robert Silverman Company, and designed by Edmund W. Dreyfuss. (Washington Post, April 4, 1959, p.C2)
The Glover Tunlaw (2725 39th Street) first advertised in 1959; it is now the Archbold. (Washington Post, April 11, 1959, p.D3)
Walton House, at 3900 Tunlaw Road, opened in 1959. (Washington Post, October 17, 1959, p.C11. See 3850 and 3900 Tunlaw Road)
The Phylmar Plaza, at 4100 W Street, came on the market in 1960. (Washington Post, February 27, 1960, p.C4)
The air-conditioned luxury “intown’ apartment building at 4000 Tunlaw was designed by Corning, Moore, Elmore and Fischer, and featured a master TV antenna system, dishwashers, valet service, three sundecks and a swimming pool. (Washington Post, January 14, 1961, p.B17)
In 1967, Cyrus Katzen, who owned property on the east side of Wisconsin Avenue between Calvert and Davis Streets, applied to build an eight-story apartment building, designed by Morris Lapidus. The property included at least two houses from about 1902-1908, 2507 and 2511 Wisconsin Avenue.
That plan appears to have been stymied by opposition from three area citizens’ associations, but another eight-story building, the Wellington Apartment Hotel opened at 2505 Wisconsin Avenue five years later. (“NW Residents Fight Zoning For High-Rise”, Washington Post, March 2, 1967, p.B2; Washington Post, February 29, 1972, p.D7)
The Meridian, at 2201 Wisconsin Avenue, built in 1980, replaced the 1937 Park and Shop Center.
(Washington Post, August 15, 1937, p.R7)
The Sheffield Apartments, at 2320 Wisconsin Avenue, came on the market in 1984. (Photo by Mary and Vytas Bandziukas, 1994)
The Georgetown Heights Condominiums were constructed between 2004 and 2006, on land purchased from Saint Luke’s Methodist Church.
Glover Park in 2010 Census Information
Households 11,804
Average Per Household 2
Family Households 5,015
Non-family Households 6,789
Owner Occupied 6,539
Renter Occupied 5,265
Built before 1939 5,516
Built between 1940 and 1949 1,734
Built between 1950 and 1959 1,424
Built between 1960 and 1969 1,377
Built between 1970 and 1979 590
Built between 1980 and 1989 1,451
Built between 1990 and 1999 296
Built between 2000 and 2009 290
Built in 2010 or Later 293
(2019 American Community Survey, US Census Bureau)
For more statistics on Glover Park households, see American Community Survey.
Be sure to check out Historical Data on DC Buildings and Historic Data on DC Buildings for information––such as year built, original owner, etc.–– on any structure in the city.
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Carlton Fletcher
The citation and acknowledgement of my research is greatly appreciated.
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The support of the Advisory Neighborhood Council (3B) is gratefully acknowledged.