Recently, I noted the following street art at the intersection of Sherman Avenue and Girard Street. Overall, I haven’t been seeing as much of this as I used too. Do you think its a thing of the past?
From the southeast corner of Sherman and Girard, facing Sherman.
From the northeast corner of Sherman and Girard, facing Girard.
It’s been a while since I checked in on the progress of the new development being constructed at 2920 Georgia Avenue. It is designed to be a 4-story market-rate condominium building with 26 units that, when announced, was planned to be finished at the end of this year.
Below are photos documenting its current state of construction.
View of 2920 Georgia from the southeast.
View from the east.
View of the site from the northeast.
The reconstruction of Sherman Avenue is finally over. A ribbon cutting has been scheduled to celebrate its completion for Tuesday July 9th at 10:00 a.m. According to the flyer (click image to right), the ceremony will be held on the southeast corner of Sherman Avenue and Morton Street and will include Mayor Gray and members of DDOT.
Councilmember Graham originally announced the reworking of Sherman Avenue on October 8, 2010 with construction set to begin on October 18th of that year. During the ensuring two and a half years, the street has been resurfaced; new curbs, gutters, and storm drains have been installed; new streetlights have been installed; and a median with new trees, shrubs, and other plantings has been created. The sidewalk areas along the east and west side have also been re-worked to include more trees.
According to DDOT’s project Website, the project’s goals were to:
The $13 million project was funded in part by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The completed Sherman Avenue streetscape project, looking north from Columbia Road.
715 Kenyon Street, NW, is in the midst of a major renovation. If you aren’t familiar with the area, it is located on the north side of Kenyon just to the west of Georgia Avenue. According to the permit I was able to find, it is being converted from a single family house into six apartments. I noticed that the original wood frame structure had German lap siding. When finished, the new structure will have little resemblance to the original house. Below are some photos I took over the weekend.
715 Kenyon project from the southeast.
715 Kenyon from the south. A portion of the original house is still visible.
From the alley, the east side of the building shows what appears to be a courtyard.
The view from the alley, north of the property, gives a good indication of the scale of the project.
2917 Georgia Avenue is in the process of becoming Bravo Lounge.
According to an ABRA Notice of Public Hearing that I received earlier this week — and that will be posted on the building today — the former Enterprise Theater and Jazz Lounge is in the planning process to be a new tavern called Bravo Lounge. The current owner of the building — located at 2917 Georgia and the former location of Henry R. Peters Professional Pharmacy — has been attempting to find a way to make a go of it since he first proposed to operate a liquor store there that met with stiff community opposition in June 2011.
I had the opportunity to speak with the owner, Michael Ressom, several weeks ago, and the business he described sounds like a good fit for the area. It is definitely in keeping with other nearby businesses.
According to the ABRA notice and my discussion with Resson, the tavern will serve food along the lines of finger foods. There will be a seating capacity for 38 inside the building and a summer garden along Hobart Place that seats 20. The area for the summer garden already has a new, level patio in place. They also appear to be in the process of applying for an entertainment endorsement.
The proposed hours of operation are:
Hours for the summer garden:
A new concrete patio space has already been poured along Hobart Place in preparation of the future summer garden.
1958 photo from WRECO landmark nomination showing both the bus garage (X) and Bond Bread factory to the north at that time.
Something that may have slipped by unnoticed by many was the D.C. Preservation League’s landmark nominations of the former Bond Bread Factory (2146 Georgia Avenue) and the Washington Railway and Electric Company Bus Garage (2112 Georgia Avenue) at the beginning of February. Both buildings are empty and owned by Howard University. The nearby former Corby Bakery building (2301 Georgia Avenue) is considered by many to have lost too much of its architectural integrity to merit landmark consideration.
According to the nominations — which I encourage folks to read if they want to know more about these buildings — the 1929 Bond Bread Factory building is a high-style industrial building designed by architect Corry B. Comstock. Its style, quality craftsmanship, and decorative detailing are rare for the city’s industrial building stock. The Bond Bread Factory, although vacant, remains in good condition and retains its integrity.
The Central Bus Garage was constructed in 1930 to house and maintain the bus fleet of the Washington Railway and Electric Company. It continued in this usage through the incorporation of WRECO into the newly-formed Capital Transit Company in 1933 and that company’s reorganization into the DC Transit Company in 1949. In 1958, the garage became the service facility and gasoline depot for a United States Post Office truck fleet that had been displaced from the Main City Post Office at North Capitol Street and Massachusetts Avenue NE.
Next time you are in the 2100 block of Georgia Avenue, you may want to take a second look at these buildings to appreciate their architecture.
Henry R. Peters ca. 1963.
While 2917 Georgia Avenue, NW, has had a difficult time in supporting an active business in recent years, it is part of an interesting history through its connection to pharmacist Dr. Henry R. Peters and his Professional Pharmacy.
Henry R. Peters (1916-1999) was the first African American appointed to the Washington Pharmacy Board, the first African American to be nominated to the American Pharmaceutical Association, and the first Bureau Chief of the Bureau of Pharmacies of the District of Columbia. The property he is most closely association with is 2917 Georgia Avenue, the location of Professional Pharmacy, which he owned and operated from 1948 to 1970. Known residences of Peters include 2737 6th St, NE, from 1951 to 1960, and 4214 Argyle Terrace, NW, from 1960 to 1965.
Dr. Peters was born in East Falmouth, Mass. He graduated from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Allied Sciences in Boston. During World War II, he was a pharmacist in the Merchant Marine.
In 1946, Dr. Peters moved to Washington. He taught at the Howard University College of Pharmacy from 1946 through 1948. He resigned in 1948 to found his own business. Along with Dr. Herman Morton, he opened Professional Pharmacy at 2917 Georgia Avenue, at the intersection of Hobart Street, and became the sole owner two years later. Peters continued to operate the business with his wife, Theresa Eric Peters.
2917 Georgia Avenue today, once the location of Professional Pharmacy.
In addition to operating the pharmacy, Peters was active in civic and social affairs. At the 1958 annual National Pharmaceutical Association convention, Peters was elected as 2nd Vice President. The following year, he delivered the principal address at the annual dinner of the District Whole Sale-Lowry Company. In this capacity, Peters was the first African American to speak before representatives of the drug industry.
In June 1960, the District Commissioners named Peters to the District Board of Pharmacy to replace Irving Sacks who was removed as a result of his efforts to enlist pharmacists in the AFL-CIO Retail Clerks International Association. This made Peters the first African American member of the five-member Board. The role of the D.C. Pharmacy Board was to determine standards, administer examinations for licenses, promote legislation, and regulate the profession of Pharmacy in Washington.
In 1962, when he was elected President of the Pharmacy Board, Dr. Peters was still the sole African American in the United States to hold a position on a pharmaceutical board. While on the Board, he engaged in championing a thorough revision of the 1906 pharmacy laws, still in force in the District of Columbia. He urgently recommended more stringent controls and severe penalties for violations and was especially concerned about legislation to curb unethical practices among some pharmacists involving counterfeit drugs, mail order prescriptions, and abuse of physician samples. His goal was to make it almost impossible for a person to obtain drugs and medicines unless they were intended for legitimate medical uses. (more…)
With all the development happening in the neighborhood, its starting to get hard to keep up. Below is a showing the progress of the Heights located on the southwest corner of Georgia and Lamont …
… and below is a photo showing 2920 Georgia Avenue (on the northwest corner of Hobart) finally underway. The property once had an old gas station on it which is now gone. The lot is destined to have a 4-story market-rate condominium building with 26 units.
The long vacant building at 2914 Sherman Avenue.
I briefly mentioned the coming renovations for 2914 Sherman Avenue last week when posting the highlights from the January ANC 1A meeting. I thought it would be good to provide more information on this project since it will have a huge impact on the 2900 block of Sherman Avenue.
The building is located just north of the PEPCO substation on the corner of Harvard and Sherman and has been vacant for several years. In a fashion similar to the building’s twin just up the block, a third story will be added to the building facilitating the conversion of this former 18-unit apartment building into a 20-unit market rate building.
Facade elevation showing addition of third floor.
The property sits on a lot that is approximately 6,000 square feet with 50 feet fronting Sherman Avenue. The existing structure dates to 1925 and consisted solely of one-bedroom apartments. The project proposes to convert these into a mix of one- and two-bedroom units with five units on each floor. As each of these units will be somewhat larger than the original one-bedroom apartments, the addition of the third level will only increase the number of living units by two. Below is the proposed first floor plan providing an idea of what the living spaces will be like.
Proposed first floor plan.
The raze permit has been issued for 2920 Georgia Avenue.
According to Michael Neibauer at the Washington Business Journal, the raze permit has finally been issued for 2920 Georgia Avenue. The developer of the property is Linde Development Companies which completed the building across the street to the south in 2011.
According to Linde’s Website, their new project will feature twenty six condominium units, sixteen one bedroom and ten two bedroom units. The building appears to be five stories in height. As with 2910 Georgia Avenue, this project does not appear to include commercial space.
Below is a rendering of the proposed building from the Linde Website.
"The territory comprising Park View extends from Gresham Street north to Rock Creek Church Road, and from Georgia Avenue to the Soldiers' Home grounds, including the triangle bounded by Park Road, Georgia Avenue, and New Hampshire Avenue" (from Directory and History of Park View, 1921.)
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Park View, D.C. 