American University Park in Washington, DC:
Its Early Houses, pre-Civil War to 1911
Multi-property Document

This document focuses on the early history of American University Park and the influence of The American University on its development as a residential subdivision.  It does not add specific properties to the DC Inventory of Historic Sites, but rather establishes a context for the early houses and a basis for evaluating individual nominations.

C&P Telephone Building (Verizon)
Cleveland-Emerson Exchange
4268 Wisconsin Avenue, NW

(Case # 09-06) The existing building sits on the site of the first (1907–1908) telephone exchange building in Tenleytown.  In 1883 there were 896 telephone subscribers.  By 1905 that number had grown to 40,000.  C&P, in response to demand in the city’s growing residential neighborhoods, built branch exchange buildings.  The Cleveland exchange, named for President Grover Cleveland, was established to serve Tenleytown and Cleveland Park. From 1,900 subscribers in 1908, the Cleveland exchange grew to 13,000 in 1926, reflecting Tenleytown’s population increase.  To accommodate the increase in subscribers, an addition was built at the rear of the original building.  Two of the walls are still evident.  The transition from manual to dial occasioned another building expansion.  This addition replaced the 1907–08 building and was built in front of the 1926 addition.  Built in two stages, the building was finally completed circa 1962.  Built of smooth–cut limestone–clad brick, with stripped classical massing, it has Art Deco detailing in front of and abutting the earlier buff brick Classical Revival-style Exchange building.

Dunblane
American University Tenley Campus
4340 Nebraska Avenue, NW

(Case # 08-11) Dunblane is one of two extant nineteenth century estates in Tenleytown. It was likely built by Clement Smith c. 1818-1820 as a country retreat and was owned by a succession of prominent Georgetown residents. From the mid-1880s to 1892, the estate was the site of the Dunblane Hunt, an activity that engaged many prominent Washingtonians. In 1888, the estate was purchased by a gold rush heiress, Anastasia Patten, and following her death in 1894, the property was sold and then reacquired by her heirs. In the twentieth century, Dunblane was purchased by the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary of the Woods and became the elementary school for Immaculata Seminary. American University purchased the property in 1986.

Dunblane is a two story Green Revival style building with a pyramidal hipped roof capped with a central cupola. The original structure is divided into three bays with a wider entry bay and two window bays. There have been additions; a two story wing on the east, probably mid-nineteenth century, a two story wing on the west built in the 1930s and a one story wing further west built in the 1970s.

Immaculata Seminary
American University Tenley Campus
4340 Nebraska Avenue, NW

(Case # 09-04) In 1904 The Sisters of Providence of St. Mary of the Woods, with the support of Cardinal Gibbons and St. Ann’s pastor, Father Mallon, purchased the property on which they built Immaculata Seminary. The Sisters of Providence focused on education and members of the order had been in Indiana since 1840. Immaculata was to be a select school for both boarders and day students. In addition to the wide range of academic subjects, students benefited from the cultural opportunities in the Capital, as well as from the extensive grounds available for games. Classes were provided to students from elementary through junior college level. By the mid-1980s, the members of the Sisters of Providence were declining in number, and those that remained were advanced in years, one of the significant realities that led the Sisters to close the school.

The Baroque Classical Revival building is three stories tall and clad in limestone. The façade is divided into five parts, a narrow central entry pavilion with wider projecting end wings connected by long, five-bay, three story hyphens. The chapel, no longer used for its original purpose, is a double-height basilican-plan structure and has a gable roof.

Giles/Walde-Carter House
Private residence

(Case #10-01) This house is one of American University Park’s earliest houses, (American University Park) built during the initial phase of development.  It is a two story frame wooden building on a stone foundation, stylistically transitional between the Queen Anne and American Four-square.  The primary elevation is divided into three bays with an entry on center and a tower above.  The tower is semi-hexagonal with a single window on each of the three sides.  Original wood floors, baseboards and trim are found throughout the house. This house and its neighbor across the street at 4619 were the only houses on their squares for a quarter century.  Built on two lots, it retains its original appearance from the street.  The house has been in the current owner’s family for over sixty years. Tenleytown resident Tom Giles, the architect and builder, was active in home building and selling real estate in old Tenleytown.

Western Bus Garage (WMATA)
5230 Wisconsin Avenue, NW (facing 44th St.)

(Case # 06-03) The Western Bus Garage is one of two known extant bus garages in the District of Columbia built specifically for the storage and servicing of buses. In 1998 E.H.T. Traceries, Inc. submitted a multi-property nomination for streetcar and bus facilities in the District of Columbia. This comprehensive document details the history of streetcars and buses from the 1862 establishment of the Washington and Georgetown Railway to 1962 when the electric trolleys made their last runs.

The Western Bus Garage's main facade on 44th Street is built of reinforced concrete, steel and brick in a trapezoidal shape and is given monumental treatment in tapestry brick and limestone. While utilizing modernistic motifs of the 1930s Art Deco/Art Moderne period, this facade might be described as stripped classical in style. The color and texture of the brick create the sense of architectural style.

Woodrow Wilson Senior High School
3950 Chesapeake Street, NW

(Case # 10-09) Wilson High School sits on a triangular parcel of land near the city’s highest natural elevation at Fort Reno. The school consists of a five-part building complex with a central block surrounding a courtyard and end wings organized along an arc facing Nebraska Avenue. It is built of red brick in an Academic Colonial Revival style, following the Palladian composition of a five-part symmetrical plan connecting secondary wings to a main block with one-story hyphens. Most of the classrooms are housed in the central block that is flanked by an auditorium to the south and library (the original gymnasium) to the east. The auditorium and library are connected to the main building by enclosed and arcaded walkways. Additions include a gym built in 1971 and a new swimming pool (2008) on the site of the original (1976) one.

The building is covered with a low-pitched hipped roof, adorned with a prominent cupola on-center of the front wing. Designed to accommodate 1,500 students from the surrounding neighborhoods, Wilson opened in September 1935 with 770 junior and sophomore students. Wilson’s current student body comes from all areas of the city. The school was formally dedicated in March 1936 with President Wilson’s widow in attendance. The school mascot, the Wilson tiger, is apparently based on that of Princeton University where President Wilson earned his undergraduate degree.

Wilson has maintained a strong emphasis on academics throughout its history. As of 2008, ninety percent of its students continued their formal education at two- or four-year colleges. Wilson students have also excelled at athletics.

(Nominated to the DC Inventory of Historic Sites by the DC Preservation League)