The Sixteenth Street Historic District is a linear historic district in Washington, D.C., that includes all structures along 16th Street NW between H Street and Florida Avenue. The district's southern boundary is bordered by Lafayette Square, just north of the White House, and Meridian Hill Park on its northern boundary. It includes an eclectic mix of architectural styles on one of the city's most historic and important numbered streets including single and multi-family residential buildings, embassies, hotels, churches, and office buildings.
Most of the district's oldest structures are religious and residential buildings, while many of the commercial buildings were built in the early to mid-20th century. The stretch of 16th Street between Scott Circle and Florida Avenue was recognized as a historic district in 1978 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 2007 it was expanded to include buildings south of Scott Circle to H Street. The historic district is also listed on the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites.
The street was laid out in the 1791 plan by engineer and architect Pierre Charles L'Enfant. Most of 16th Street remained undeveloped until after the Civil War when the street and city itself began to experience large-scale growth and development during the Reconstruction era. By the late 19th century, 16th Street had become a fashionable area lined with elaborate homes and this popularity continued into the early 20th century.
Years later many of these homes were razed to make way for hotels, commercial buildings, and other projects before historic preservation gained popularity. Some of these replacement buildings have since been razed or remodeled, including the Third Church of Christ, Scientist, which was demolished in 2014 following years of legal battles, and the Embassy of Australia, demolished in 2020.
The district includes several individually listed buildings and monuments. Three of these are National Historic Landmarks: St. John's Episcopal Church, the Carnegie Institution of Washington Administration Building, and the Robert Simpson Woodward House. Significant contributing properties in the historic district include the Embassy of Kazakhstan, Hay–Adams Hotel, House of the Temple, and the Russian ambassador's residence. Noted architects whose work is represented in the district include Carrère and Hastings, Arthur B. Heaton, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, Mihran Mesrobian, John Russell Pope, and Jules Henri de Sibour.
Geography The Sixteenth Street Historic District measures approximately on 16th Street NW from the north side of H Street on its southern border to the south side of Florida Avenue on its northern border. It includes all properties facing 16th Street within those borders: Squares 174–186, 188–200, and Reservations 62–64, and 146–147. The linear north–south street is wide, wider than any other numbered street in the city and the same width as the city's major avenues, which includes the wide roadway with four lanes of two-way traffic.
The federal government owns the right-of-way between the building lines while the road, sidewalks, and planted areas such as tree boxes are under the jurisdiction of the District of Columbia Department of Public Works. There are wide sidewalks on each side of the street, except between M and O Streets where an underpass goes beneath Scott Circle. Major roads that intersect 16th Street in the historic district include H Street, K Street, M Street, Massachusetts Avenue, Rhode Island Avenue, P Street, U Street, Florida Avenue, and New Hampshire Avenue. The district begins in Downtown and passes through the Dupont Circle and U Street neighborhoods. The street continues north past the historic district for another to the city's boundary with Montgomery County, Maryland.
There are 161 buildings and structures in the historic district, 16 of which are considered non-contributing buildings that were constructed after 1959 or have been significantly altered. Most of the structures north of Scott Circle are residential, including rowhouses, apartment buildings, and houses converted into office space. Commercial structures including office buildings and hotels comprise most of the properties south of Scott Circle, but there are also a dozen houses still standing. There are three public artworks in and around Scott Circle: Daniel Webster Memorial (Reservation 62), Equestrian statue of Winfield Scott (Reservation 63), and Samuel Hahnemann Monument (Reservation 64).
The Sixteenth Street Historic District neighbors six other National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) historic districts: Lafayette Square (south), Dupont Circle (west), Fourteenth Street (east), U Street (east), Strivers' Section (west), and Meridian Hill (north). 16th Street is a contributing street and Reservations 62-64 contributing parks to the L'Enfant Plan of the City of Washington, which was listed on the NRHP in 1997.
History 1790s–1850s
Before the City of Washington was founded, the area along present-day 16th Street NW was privately owned farmland. From the White House to L Street, the area was called Port Royal and owned by Samuel Davidson, from L Street to S Street the area was called Jamaica, owned by John Waring, and north of S Street was called Flint's Discovery, owned by Robert Peter. The right-of-way was transferred to the federal government after plans were made for a city layout.
In 1791, President George Washington appointed engineer Pierre Charles L'Enfant to design the new federal capital. The L'Enfant Plan included wide streets radiating from public squares and landmarks, including the new home of the president. His plan for 16th Street included a wide road that would lead from Boundary Street, now known as Florida Avenue, south to the president's home. Although some of his plans for 16th Street were changed, including additional public squares that were to be located along the street, L'Enfant's predecessor proceeded with having an open space at the intersection of Massachusetts and Rhode Island Avenues, present-day Scott Circle.
One of the first major buildings constructed on 16th Street was St. John's Episcopal Church, completed in 1816 and designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, located on the northeast corner of H Street across from present-day Lafayette Square. Development on 16th Street lagged for many years due to most residents choosing to live in the Capitol Hill and Southwest neighborhoods. One prominent resident that did live in the area was John Adams II, son of President John Quincy Adams, whose circa 1829 home was located on the northwest corner of 16th and I Streets.
In 1853 gas streetlamps were installed on the east side of the street, but most of the lots were undeveloped. That same year a report by engineer and Brigadier General Montgomery C. Meigs documented 100 dwellings, two stores, and St. John's Church in the vicinity of 16th Street between H and Boundary Streets. Many of these dwellings either faced adjoining streets or were shanties. In 1856 Benjamin Brown French, the Public Commissioner of Buildings, described 16th Street beyond K Street as a "zig-zag cart track" and suggested "if it was opened and graded to Boundary Street, besides being one of the largest and finest streets in the metropolis, it would greatly tend to relieve the barren prospect which meets the eye from the north front of the President's House between K and Boundary streets."
1860s–1870s
At the time the Civil War broke out in 1861, there were only ten structures on 16th Street between present-day Scott Circle and Meridian Hill Park. During the war plans to improve the street were put on hold. On the northern end of the historic district, the farm at Boundary Street was used as a hospital and encampment for Union soldiers. The years after the war saw immense change and growth in the city. Alexander "Boss" Shepherd, who served as the city's Board of Public Works and later as governor, oversaw large-scale improvements to the city's streets, including 16th Street which was paved from Lafayette Square to Boundary Street. Tulip trees were planted along the street and due to changes which narrowed the city's right-of-way, the surviving trees are now in front yards. Several of these trees are older than the buildings on the property. There are also English oaks and maple trees lining the road.
Scott Circle was formed in 1873 when the rectangular plot of land at 16th Street, Massachusetts Avenue, and Rhode Island Avenue was redesigned as a circular park with a small triangular park on the east and west sides. The equestrian statue honoring General Winfield Scott that is sited in the middle of the circle was dedicated in 1874. These improvements still did not spur major development until the next decade. Storage facilities, lumber yards, shanties, and kilns lined 16th Street between K Street and Scott Circle during the 1870s. Due to mosquito-infested streams that flowed south from Meridian Hill, building a house between the area of Scott and Dupont Circle was considered unfashionable.
Smaller homes were built further north on 16th Street during the 1870s. Some of these early houses still standing are 1904 16th Street built in 1875, the Queen Anne row of homes at 1816–1826 16th Street built in 1876, the Italianate 1900 and 1902 16th Street built in 1878, and 1601–1607 16th Street built between 1878 and 1880. The garage for 1601 16th Street, built as a stable in 1878, is one of the oldest stables still standing in the city.
1880s–1890s
During the 1880s a number of expensive and ornate homes were finally built along lower 16th Street and around Scott Circle, an area that at the time was racially integrated and included simple frame houses. On the southeast corner of 16th and K Streets, Nicholas Longworth Anderson commissioned Henry Hobson Richardson to build a large house in 1881, the first of four homes that Richardson would design in the city. That same year new houses were built on Scott Circle for Secretary of the Treasury William Windom on the northwest corner, Senator George H. Pendleton's on the northeast corner, and Senator J. Donald Cameron which was on the east side of Pendleton's house facing Rhode Island Avenue. In 1883 Stilson Hutchins, founder of The Washington Post, also built a home on the northwest corner. He later donated funds for the erection of the Daniel Webster Memorial, sited on the west side of Scott Circle. In 1884 the adjoining homes of John Hay and Henry Adams that were designed by Richardson were built on the northwest corner of 16th and H Streets, across from St. John's.
There were also smaller homes built around Scott Circle, including a Victorian building on the southwest corner rented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1883 which housed his Bell Experimental School. A large home built south of Scott Circle in 1886 was for Lucius Tuckerman, whose Richardsonian Romanesque house on the southwest corner of 16th and I Streets was designed by Hornblower & Marshall. North of Scott Circle larger homes built during this period include the Richardsonian Romanesque 1623 16th Street, built in 1886 and designed by Albert W. Fuller, and 1401 16th Street, a similar style house built in 1888 which later served as the residence of Vice President James S. Sherman.
Modest rowhouses built by real estate developers were also constructed during this period. In addition to these houses, large religious buildings were erected on 16th Street beginning in the 1880s. In 1889, First Baptist Church moved into a new Romanesque Revival building on the southwest corner of 16th and O Streets. It was designed by William Bruce Gray and featured a tower. On the northern end of the historic district, development was slow and the area around 16th and U Streets featured farms, shacks, and swampy land.