What a shame. What's there now is worse than hideous. It may serve a great purpose, but the design doesn't belong in an urban area. And the blank wall it gives 14th is 'unforgiveable'. I wonder if there's any chance it can be razed? Probably not ... now that the District sold it off as individual units to its then tenants. Because of the near impossibility of ever aggregating it back as a single lot, ironically, it'll be this current incarnation that probably stays there forever ... and ever. You have to wonder what the city fathers were thinking when they made such a blunder! Did they really think 14th Street would forever be down on its luck?!

by Lance on Aug 4, 2009 9:48 pm  

Thanks so much for this !

My home's row of 10 Italianate houses is directly across 14th on S and also built in 1865. Our row, by same architect, was made to look like one Italian villa. There's little Italianate left in DC.

Because of the shortage of wood from the civil war all trees in Rock Creek Park had been cut down. The joists in our houses and the orphanage were massive timbers from the 11th Street railway bridge which had just been torn down. Because of the shortage of cement from the war effort the "mortar" was mostly sand and limestone.

There were no other buildings around here for another 10 years when the Columbia Streetcar Line developed 14th as residential. Because they had mis-surveyed 14th Street by 7' in building the orphanage and our row I eventually ended up with a 25' wide lot.

The real challenge would be to find a period photo of our row of 10.

Thanks again.

by Tom Coumaris on Aug 5, 2009 2:27 pm  

Tom, that's interesting. My house is Italianate too and down the street from yours (though younger, 1880). Good luck finding the period photo. It seems that back in the day they rarely took pictures of your average house. (Probably because the process was expensive and only limited in quantity ... and people probably still viewed them as replacements for painted portraits.) I have a question about the mortar though. I was under the understanding that prior to the 20th century all mortar was 'mostly sand and limestone'. How does your differ from that used on houses such as mine built 15 years later? (Incidentally, the sand and limestone dries out over the years, especially if moisture is held in by paint, and it requires re-pointing after 80 years from what I've read. I think the prior owner of my house had the front repointed with a Portland cement type of mortar ... which turned out to be a mistake because that will break old bricks because it doesn't 'give' to expansion of the old, soft brick. ... The bricks changed too sometime around the turn of the last century ... from hand made to machine made and more regular in shape ... making possible the use of a thinner layer of 'cement' type mortar.)

by Lance on Aug 5, 2009 11:34 pm  

I really really enjoy this blog. I learn so much about my adopted home town. The Lost Washington photos and stories are really wonderful. Thank you for your work!

by Courtney on Aug 7, 2009 9:46 am  

Not sure if I know how , but here's an attempt at link to composite of our row of 10:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/MtH_X8ZV5zqBle3QqVsk7w?feat=directlink

by Tom Coumaris on Aug 7, 2009 4:20 pm  

In 1962, I became the Associate Director of Hillcrfest Children's Center and moved into an innovative building on 14 and W across from Childrten's Hospital. I am trying to locate any person who knows what happened to HCC. The building has been sold and abandoned. I want to write a history of this program which was a primary training center for psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals.

by nicholas long on Aug 15, 2009 12:53 am  

I believe my father and his brother were in the Hillcrest Children's Center from 1948 - 1950 is there anyway to get records? I have no idea where to even start. Thank you for any information provided.

by Terri on Sep 14, 2009 9:11 pm  

Nicholas,

If you haven't already completed your research, go to this website for more info: http://www.hillcrestchildrenscenter.org/

by Anon on Mar 23, 2010 11:29 am  

My mother, her brother, and her sister were placed in the Washington City Orphan Asylum about 1922. My mother and her sister were moved to the Marcia Van Ness Cottage located on Nebraska Ave, NW about 1927. Her brother was sent to the Baptist Home for Children in Alta Vista on Wisconsin Ave. Is there any way to get the records for when they were in the orphanages? My mom and her sister went home to live about 1932, but her brother stayed in the orphanage until about 1935.

Any help is appreciated.

by C Thwaits on Nov 3, 2011 8:18 pm  

Need info on accessing records re my mother and her brother who were listed in the orphan asylum in the 1930 census.

by G, Bray on Apr 5, 2012 7:30 pm