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Most Endangered Places
2003

Old Engine Company 6
Rutherford B. Hayes School
911-919 New Jersey Ave., SE
Carter G. Woodson House
Woodlawn Cemetery
Martin Luther King, Jr. Pub. Library
Anne Archbold Hall
St. Elizabeths
DC World War I Memorial
Uline Arena/Washington Coliseum
Corcoran Hunting Lodge
Capitol Park
Western Telegraph Company

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Most Endangered Places for 2003

911-919 NEW JERSEY AVE, SE

REPRESENTATIVE OF WASHINGTON ROW HOUSES

OWNER: PRIVATE

HISTORY
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 building, in styles ranging from Federal and Italianate to eclectic Victorian, Colonial Revival and Modernistic. These buildings are present in almost every District neighborhood.

WHAT IS THE THREAT?
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. Many others have been modernized with inappropriate materials as their original elements decayed, resulting in widespread loss of historic integrity.

DCPL’S RESPONSE
The Row House Task Force was created in 2002 to raise public awareness of the significance of historic row houses. In September 2002 the Task Force initiated Row House Month, with activities intended to instill pride in D.C.’s predominant housing type and encourage sensitive but functional renovation of aging and deteriorating row houses. Increasingly the only affordable housing available on the market is run down. The Row House Task Force aims to empower people to buy and rehab existing row houses by educating them about the historic value of older homes, materials used to renovate them, and the city's regulations. Recently, representatives from the Row House Task Force joined others in Baltimore and Philadelphia to discuss regional concerns and possible solutions.

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