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Wheatley Town Houses

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1854–1859, unknown. 3041–3045 N St. NW
  • (Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

This row of three dwellings was constructed over a period of four years. The first section, 3045 N Street, apparently was for the owner, Francis Wheatley, who built the adjacent houses on the east, 3041 and 3043 N Street, by 1859. Unlike the nearly flat facades of earlier row houses, these are ornamented with polychromatic or sculptural detail. Tall, narrow windows bestow a strong sense of verticality. The first house bears details notable in Georgetown. Each window presents a flat geometric design made of sandstone and red brick to resemble a hood mold. The same design tops the door, except that the frame projects slightly. At the sill line of the second and third stories, bands of diamond-shaped bricks invite the play of light and shadow. The adjacent row houses are more pronounced in their sculptural detail. Elaborate segmental cast-iron hood molds with a central medallion and deep brackets crown each window, although the quantity of detail diminishes from the first story to the third. At the roofline is a richly bracketed cornice. As a group, these houses represent a trend toward the sculptural qualities of stone and cast iron.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Pamela Scott and Antoinette J. Lee
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Data

What's Nearby

Georgetown Custom House and Post Office
Farmers and Mechanics Branch, Riggs Bank
Canal Square
Building
The Foundry

Citation

Pamela Scott and Antoinette J. Lee, "Wheatley Town Houses", [Washington, District of Columbia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/DC-01-GT15.

Print Source

Buildings of the District of Columbia, Pamela Scott and Antoinette J. Lee. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993, 408-408.

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