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Most Endangered Places
2002

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Most Endangered Places for 2002

Washington Rowhouses
Located throughout the District of Columbia

Dilapidated row houses at Florida Avenue and 5 th Street, NW

The row house is Washington’s quintessential building type, being the earliest type of non-governmental building erected in the nation’s capital and continuing to be built today. The bulk of the city’s housing stock is composed of two, three, and four story brick attached and semi-detached buildings, in styles ranging from Federal and Italianate to Victorian and Modern. These buildings are present in almost every District neighborhood. Because of the economic conditions and population shifts that occurred in the second half of the twentieth century, many of these row houses now stand empty and deteriorating.

These abandoned buildings represent a unique opportunity for the District of Columbia to both stimulate the restoration of historic buildings in our neighborhoods and help address the housing crisis the city is currently facing. DCPL has advocated for increased preservation enforcement: the new Demolition by Neglect Law was a League initiative. Legislation that was recently passed would give tax credits to owners of historic houses to encourage their renovation, restoration, and return to use in housing District families. DCPL is working independently and with the Mayor’s office to encourage the rehabilitation of vacant and abandoned housing.

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