Featured Historic Districts
      Introduction
      Logan Circle
      Residential Architecture
      Religious Architecture
      Public Architecture
      Commercial Architecture
      Residents
      Greater 14th St. Area Today
      Logan Circle Comm. Assoc.
      Credits
   Designation Procedures
   and Criteria
   Frequently Asked Questions

Religious Architecture

In the nineteenth century, the construction of numerous churches anchored and sustained the growing residential community. Churches hurried to accommodate their expanding congregations, while taking advantage of low real estate prices in the developing area around Fourteenth Street. Between 1867 and 1902, seven churches were built in the area; two additional churches were construrcted in the mid-twentieth century.

The oldest church in the neighborhood is Luther Place Memorial (1867), constructed as a memorial of thanks for the ending fo the Civil War. The Gothic Revival church with its prominent spires is just north of Thomas Circle. In the 1870s and 1880s, churches constructed in the area include: St. Luke's Episcopal, John Wesley Methodist, Vermont Avenue Baptist, and Mt. Olivet Lutheran. St Luke's (1879), designed by African-American architect Calvin Brent, served as a small neighborhood church. Constructed of rusticated stone, Mt. Gilead Baptist (1896) stands as an important visual terminus to the row of brick dwellings on Corcoran Street. Grace Reformed (1902) was built as a memorial to the Reformed Church in America and is noted for having had President Theodore Roosevelt as one of its members.