historic preservation

Don’t be fooled by its homely appearance, the empty lot at 3601 M Street NW in Georgetown (formerly an Exxon station) is one of the hottest pieces of real estate in town. Coveted by the Georgetown-Rosslyn Gondola Coalition (full…

In 2018, workers removed legally protected materials from the building, which is being turned into a museum

There are only 18 buildings in the entire District of Columbia with as much historical preservation protection as the Franklin School, a stately and beautiful building on K Street NW erected in 1869 as the District’s first high school. Both…

In DC’s historic preservation process, all nominations start with an application. Often composed by professional historians and/or architectural experts, the application lays out the history of the property and explains how it meets the…

In the early 1900s, Chesapeake watermen dredged the Bay’s bottom for wild oysters and brought their hauls to DC’s “Fish Wharf” on the Southwest Waterfront. Now over a century later, a modern breed of oystermen are setting up shop in the…

The historic Takoma Theatre, redeveloped by Rock Creek Property Group and soon home to a satellite clinic for Children’s National Hospital, has signed two retail tenants: Lost Sock Roasters, a small-batch coffee roaster, and Turning…

Howard University has received $500,000 from the National Park Service (NPS) Foundation to implement handicap accessibility renovations at Founders Library. Eighteen institutions received a total of $8.6 million in grant funding to support…

The so-called Exorcist Steps, the site of that demonic fall at the end of The Exorcist and a ton of huffing and puffing from folks trying to get up the 97 steps from M Street NW to Prospect Street, is the subject of an application for…

The District has issued a stop-work order on the $50 million redevelopment of the Franklin School, a publicly owned historic building downtown that developers are transforming into the city’s first-ever language arts museum, after officials…

In a city of monuments, the Franklin School is one of just 18 buildings with both its interior and exterior designated for historical protection — the highest level the city can bestow. It’s also a National Historic Landmark, a distinction…

If only this house could talk. For 180 years the small, stone “miracle” has witnessed the passing of history on the southwest corner of 17th Street and what is now Constitution Avenue. Battered by time, nature, and neglect, the onetime…

DC is growing, and as this spring’s passionate debate about the DC Comprehensive Plan revealed, managing this growth is one of the most important and contentious city planning discussions of our time. However, decisions about historic…