Park Road Courts

Park Road Courts are significant in the area of Architecture (under Criterion C). Designed by the leading architectural firm Hunter & Bell, which specialized in apartment building design, the three-story building is an interpretation of the Classical Revival style adapted for the apartment building type. Constructed in 1916, towards the end of Hunter & Bell's practice when they had perfected their design skills and collaborative efforts, the apartment building presents an elegant form that simultaneously respects other residential buildings on the street and distinguishes itself through its unusual setback and elegant exterior design. Situated near the intersection of Park Road and 14th Street, N.W., the building was planned as a purpose-built urban apartment building sited near 14h Street, one of the city's most important thoroughfares established by the extension of the streetcar lines north of the city. Despite the extensive changes that the 14th Street corridor has undergone, including much devastation during the 1968 riots, the apartment building at 1346 Park Road, N.W., retains its exterior design, workmanship, setting, and location and continues to make an important contribution to Washington's apartment building historic context, thus retaining the integrity of feeling and association.

Both the architectural firm of Hunter & Bell and real estate developer John L. Warren became leaders in their field in the first half of the twentieth century. At the time of its construction, the apartment building at 1346 Park Road, N.W., was one of the last apartment buildings that Hunter & Bell designed before their firm dissolved. Working alongside building contractor James E. Fox, the team efficiently implemented the design plans into a construction project, completing the building in under six months. One of a few apartment buildings that the development team built during this time, the three-story Park Road Courts is notable for its purpose-built construction near the expanding 14" Street corridor. Presenting apartment units ranging from four to five bedrooms, Park Road Courts, while offering moderate rents, provided the additional amenities of large foyers and enclosed porches. Its three-story design meant that the building could forego the incorporation of an elevator, a cost-effective measure of which the developer and builder would have been well aware. Constructed during a time when apartment buildings were increasingly abandoning the luxury amenities associated with hotel-type personal services, the building is a successful example of one of Hunter & Bell's designs for a decidedly middle-class resident, a shift from the majority of their work which targeted the upper end of the market. Their employment and mastery of the Classical Revival style are evident in the building's ordered composition and reflect the Washington architects' predilection to use this style in the design of apartment buildings of all sizes.

Park Road Courts are also significant in the area of Community Planning and Development for their place in the development of Washington apartment buildings and of 14h Street, N.W., in the early twentieth century. When Park Road Courts were constructed in 1916, the acceptance of middle-class apartment buildings in Washington, D.C. was underway, becoming widespread during the 1920s and 1930s as a post-World War I building boom was spurred by the city's population growth and the northward extension of the streetcar line. Apartment building design and planning underwent important innovations in the late 1910s and 1920s in response to the pressing need for housing due to the city's rapidly expanding population and the influx of federal workers. Increasingly, as can be seen at the apartment building at 1346 Park Road, N.W., architects and developers focused on the impressive exterior design and public spaces in their apartment buildings with more modestly appointed interiors and secondary elevations. Apartment buildings along the upper 14" Street corridor offered efficient streetcar access to the central city and convenient local shopping at 14" Street and Park Road. John L. Warren, the real estate developer for Park Road Courts, sought to tap into the newly emerging market for middle-class residents of the city and fostered his working partnership with the architectural firm Hunter & Bell to maximize real estate potential in the city. In the tight housing market during this time, especially as World War I was drawing to a close, federal salaries did not keep up with the inflation in housing prices. As a result, apartments gained a foothold as an economical home-owning alternative to single-family housing.

Park Road Courts are nominated under the Multiple Property Documentation Form, Apartment Buildings in Washington, D.C., 1880-1945 (Traceries, 1993). The property meets criteria specifically developed to evaluate apartment buildings pursuant to the D.C. Apartment Building Survey and adopted by the District of Columbia Historic Preservation Review Board in December 1989 as identified by the Apartment Buildings in Washington, D.C., 1880-1945 Multiple Property Document. These criteria include:

• Buildings that illustrate the development of the apartment movement as it relates to the need for housing, including the introduction of the building type and the specific forms seen in this early period throughout the city.


• Buildings that are part of clusters, corridors, or districts that illustrate the patterns of development of the city.


• Buildings that reflect economic forces, both external and internal, that altered the development of the city.

Park Road Courts, located at 1346 Park Road, N.W., has been identified as a Conventional Low-Rise Apartment Building Sub-type, as defined by the Multiple Property Documentation Form, Apartment Buildings in Washington, D.C., 1880-1945. As described in the Multiple Property Documentation Form, the Conventional Low-Rise Apartment Building Sub-type was "designed and built specifically to function as an apartment building. The building contains at least five self-sufficient (with private kitchen and bath facilities) apartment (dwelling) units, is at least two and no more than four stories high, has a single main public entrance door, and does not contain an elevator." Examples of this sub-type must date from between 1880 and 1945. The apartment building at 1346 Park Road, N.W., specifically constructed to serve as an apartment building, contains 21 units ranging in size from four to five rooms. Constructed in 1916, the building stands three stories in height. As stated in the Registration Requirements of the Multiple Property Documentation forms, examples of conventional low-rise apartment buildings must retain the architectural composition, ornamental details, and materials of their original primary exterior elevation. The exterior of Park Road Courts, particularly the primary elevation along Park Road, is primarily intact. Although the original open porches on the façade (northwest elevation) have been enclosed over the years, the openings of the fenestration pattern have not changed and the use of the ribbons of four double-hung windows in the large façade openings is viewed as reversible. Thus, despite the minor reversible alterations to the exterior that have been determined not to diminish the building's contribution to the historic context of apartment buildings in Washington, D.C., Park Road Courts retains the moderate degree of integrity required to convey its artistic value as a 1916 conventional low-rise apartment building.