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Kalorama, Washington, D.C.

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Kalorama
Neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
Private residences and embassies located on Massachusetts Avenue in Sheridan-Kalorama
Kalorama within the District of Columbia
Coordinates: 38.9184°N 77.048°WCoordinates: 38.9184°N 77.048°W
Country	United States
District	Washington, D.C.
Ward	Ward 1
Government
• Councilmember	Jim Graham

The Kalorama area within the Northwest Quadrant of Washington, D.C., includes the residential neighborhoods of Kalorama Triangle and Sheridan-Kalorama. The area is accessible from the Dupont Circle and Woodley Park Metro stations, as well as various bus lines. Kalorama Triangle is bordered by Connecticut Avenue, Columbia Road, Calvert Street, and Rock Creek Park. Sheridan-Kalorama is immediately southwest, located between Connecticut Avenue, Rock Creek Park, Massachusetts Avenue, and Florida Avenue.

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History of two neighborhoods[edit]

Edward Lind Morse Studio located at 2133 R Street NW

The Kalorama area was primarily rural until the close of the 19th century, lying northwest of the original limits of Washington City from L'Enfant's original plan. In 1795, Gustavus Scott, a commissioner for the District of Columbia purchased the property, which had been a portion of Anthony Holmead's "Widows Mite" holdings. He constructed a large, classically styled house at 23rd and S Streets, which he named Belair. In 1807, the noted poet Joel Barlow bought the property and renamed it "Kalorama," which translates from Greek as "fine view." Barlow lived in the home until shortly before his death in 1812. Barlow commissioned Capitol architect Benjamin Latrobe to enlarge the house and elevate its design. Kalorama (the residence) was destroyed by a fire during the American Civil War while it was used as a Union hospital. The residence was rebuilt and returned to a single-family home until 1887, when it was leveled by the District of Columbia government for the extension of S Street NW.

In the early 1880s, the Kalorama area, being located beyond Boundary Street (now Florida Avenue) and thus outside the city limits, which had hithero remained primarily undeveloped, began to be subdivided for urban development. In 1893 Congress ordered L'Enfant's design of the city of Washington extended outward to include the rest of the District. Existing developments were exempted, which is why Kalorama is one of the few portions of D.C. that does not comply with the city's grid system for streets. Two high bridges over the deep gorge of Rock Creek became important to the development of both sides of Kalorama in this period, the Calvert Street bridge (since replaced by the Duke Ellington Bridge), built in 1891, and the Taft Bridge (on Connecticut Avenue), built in 1907.

The Westmoreland, located at 2122 California Street NW, was built in 1906. The building originally opened as a rental property in 1906 and was converted to a co-op in 1948. The building was designed by architects Edgar S. Kennedy and Harry Blake in 1905.

Kalorama Triangle[edit]


Kalorama Triangle Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
2029 Connecticut Avenue
Location	Roughly bounded by Connecticut Ave., Columbia Rd., and Calvert St.
NRHP Reference #	87000627
Added to NRHP	May 4, 1987

The Kalorama Triangle is a residential enclave of Adams Morgan, located in Northwest Washington bounded by three major thoroughfares: Connecticut Avenue, Calvert Street, NW and Columbia Road. Kalorama Triangle is in the service area of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 1C, the Adams Morgan Advisory Neighborhood Commission, and is represented by the commissioners for 1C02.^[1]

The neighborhood is served by mass transit, with the Woodley Park Metro station across the Taft or Duke Ellington Bridge, the 90/92/96/97/X3/L2 Metrobus lines and one of the DC Circulator lines stopping along its northern border (Calvert Street), the L1 Metrobus line (rush hour only) stopping along its western border (Connecticut Avenue), and the H1/42/43 Metrobus lines (H1 and 43 being rush hour only) stopping along its south-eastern border (Columbia Road).

Sheridan-Kalorama / Kalorama Heights[edit]

Notable residents[edit]

French ambassador's residencelocated at 2221 Kalorama Road, NW

Sheridan-Kalorama was the home of five former or future Presidents in the early 20th century:

Woodrow Wilson purchased a recently built house at 2340 S Street, NW, in 1921, and lived there until his death three years later. Following the death in 1961 of Wilson's widow, Edith, the Woodrow Wilson House was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964 and became a museum dedicated to Wilson's memory.
William Howard Taft lived in the large Colonial Revival house at 2215 Wyoming Avenue, from 1921 until his death in 1930. The house had been built by Alvan T. Fuller in 1908 on a design by local architect Appleton P. Clark, Jr., and is now the Syrian Embassy.
Franklin D. Roosevelt lived at 2131 R Street from 1917 to 1920, while Assistant Secretary of the Navy. The house, originally built in 1899 with a 1901 addition, is now the residence of the Ambassador of Mali.
Warren Harding lived at 2314 Wyoming Avenue from 1917 to 1921, then as a U.S. Senator from Ohio. The house was built in 1915 in the Federal style on a design by architect George N. Ray, and is now the residence of the Ambassador of Monaco.
Herbert Hoover, when appointed Secretary of Commerce in 1921, purchased a house built by Thomas Gales in 1902 in the Colonial Revival style on a design by Appleton P. Clark, Jr. He lived there with his family until his inauguration in 1929 and after leaving the White House from 1933 to 1944. It has been the Embassy of Burma, then Myanmar since 1954.

Spanish Steps

Other notable former Kalorama residents include Supreme Court Justices Charles Evans Hughes, Louis Brandeis, Harlan F. Stone and Joseph McKenna, and Federal Reserve Governors Adolph C. Miller and Frederic Adrian Delano. More recent ones include the late U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and historian Elizabeth Eisenstein.

The Sheridan-Kalorama neighborhood also includes a number of diplomatic residences, such as the residence of the French Ambassador at 2221 Kalorama Road, as well as several embassies - on its Southern side it also includes much of Embassy Row on Massachusetts Avenue. The William Howard Taft Bridge, carrying Connecticut Avenue over Rock Creek Park, with its imposing concrete lions, is also a notable feature. The Spanish Steps are another landmark of the neighborhood.