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Houses

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1903, 1907, Frederick B. Pyle. 2126, 2128, 2129, 2131, 2132, 2137 Bancroft Pl. NW

Pyle designed six important houses on the street, 2137, in 1903, and numbers 2126, 2128, 2129, 2131, and 2132 four years later following the same strategy. His bowfronted house at 2137 in the Georgian Revival style uses white stone keystones above the windows. Pyle exaggerated the Georgian Revival motif in the Beaux-Arts flat fronts at 2129 and 2131, which are more elaborate and formal than at 2137, across the street. Not only the keystones but also the end stones of the arches were executed in limestone to create a strong color contrast and distinct checkerboard pattern. Pyle's houses on the south side of the street have more plastically developed facades, employing a vocabulary derived from Baroque rather than Renaissance sources. Deep cornices supported by richly sculpted brackets or substantial modillions partially mask (at 2126 and 2132) round and oval bull's-eye dormer windows. Their stone details—whether cornices, quoins, or Gibbs surrounds on the door and window frames (on the ground story of 2132)—are exuberant but carefully balanced elements within his overall compositions.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Pamela Scott and Antoinette J. Lee
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Citation

Pamela Scott and Antoinette J. Lee, "Houses", [Washington, District of Columbia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/DC-01-SK59.

Print Source

Buildings of the District of Columbia, Pamela Scott and Antoinette J. Lee. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993, 356-356.

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