Kalorama Triangle Historic District

About this property

The Kalorama Triangle Historic District is a mostly residential neighborhood and a historic district in the northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. The entire Kalorama Triangle neighborhood was listed on the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites (DCIHS) and National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1987. In addition to individually listed landmarks in the neighborhood, the district is home to roughly 350 contributing properties. The neighborhood is roughly bounded by Connecticut Avenue to the west, Columbia Road to the east, and Calvert Street on the north. The area was originally home to the Nacotchtank and Mattawoman tribes until the 17th century when tracts of land were granted by Charles II of England. Land was deeded and tracts split until the present-day neighborhood was a tract named Widow's Mite. The tract was renamed to Kalorama, which means "nice view" in Greek, in 1807. The tract included not only Kalorama Triangle, but the area now known as the Sheridan-Kalorama Historic District. The two neighborhoods were eventually divided by Connecticut Avenue, which runs north from Dupont Circle to Woodley Park via the Taft Bridge. The two neighborhoods are still sometimes referred to together as "Kalorama Heights". For many years Kalorama Triangle was only inhabited by a few families living in larger stand-alone houses. When streetcars were installed on Connecticut Avenue and Columbia Road, development of the neighborhood grew rapidly. Although there were still stand-alone houses being constructed, most of the new housing consisted of rowhouses. There were also large, ornate apartment buildings constructed in the neighborhood, especially along Connecticut Avenue and Columbia Road. Within a few years, all of the lots had been developed and construction slowed down in the 1920s, when there was little land left to develop. Historic preservationists worked with local officials to create the historic district, which was added to the DCIHS and NRHP in 1987. Before then, there were already three landmarks on the NRHP, including the Lothrop Mansion, the Fuller House, and the equestrian statue of George B. McClellan. The neighborhood is now considered a suburban-like oasis in a busy area of the city. The cohesiveness of the buildings, the quiet streets, the diversity of the population, and the easy access to restaurants and Washington Metro stations are the major factors for people living in the neighborhood.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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