Washington Navy Yard, Washington, DC
General Description (1919 report):
"A site for the navy-yard workers was selected in the southeast part of Washington about a mile and a quarter from the navy yard... though cheaper land was available both immediately west of the yard
and across the Anacostia River less than a mile away, these sections were not as attractive to the employees. The site comprised 10 city blocks as already laid out in the official plan of Washington and had not been built upon except for a few small houses near the northwest corner...The built-up section of the city came at all points to within a block or so of the western edge of the development along Seventeenth Street. There is a car line at Fifteenth and East Capitol Streets, two blocks from the corner of the property..."
1919 excerpt describing the design of the Navy Yard Site:
Area planned: For apartment houses, 14.33 acres; for row houses, 22.73 acres; for dormitories, 18.84 acres; total, 55.90 acres.
Housing planned: Apartment houses, 308 families; row houses, 274 families; dormitories, 540 persons.
Housing constructed: Dormitories, 540 persons.
"The plans as completed contemplated dividing the northern part of the initial tract into three apartment blocks and five blocks for houses, apartments being concentracted along East Capitol Street and Massachusetts Avenue. They were so disposed upon each of the blocks as to leave a playground in the rear with an alley on all sides of it and space for garages... In the two apartment buildings on Seventeenth Street provision was made for 16 stores... As this project would become an integral portion of the city of Washington, no other community features than those mentioned were provided.
"This housing being designed for permanent housing of the better paid employees it formed, with stores and the houses which were to be erected adjoining, a high-class community in the neighborhood of the yard. The comparatively low land values made possible the open development of apartment houses indicated in the plan, the arrangement allowing ample playground inside each block and giving an agreeable outlook from the rather generous porches provided with each apartment. The apartments are well planned and rather more generously than usual in the practice of the corporation. The grouping is excellent as is the simple treatment of the exterior design."
Renderings, 1919
