RSS FeedThe Most Well Maintained Vacant Property In PQ
This building, which sits on the corner of H St & 10th St NW, has got to be the most well maintained vacant property in the PQ. On our walk home from work, there always seems to be evidence of maintenance activities. For example, scaffolding appears every once in a while (pictured above) to repair the facade.
Someone with some deep pockets must be maintaining the unused property, possibly waiting for the commercial real estate market to bounce back? We are still baffled because a quick search of the DC real property database yields no results! The only clue we have is the HSU logo on top of the covered walkway, which leads to the HSU Development website. Upon further inspection, HSU seems to be engaged in many government contracts. So, we can only presume that the vacant building is owned by the Feds. We wonder when the building will be put to use? The internet search continues..
Update: StreetsOfDC gave a great description of the building and a link to some more current info. Thanks!
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The property is the former Webster School, and it is owned now by the federal government. The DC Register of Historic Places says this of the Webster School:
This twelve-room schoolhouse, the sister of Gales School, typifies the city’s post-Civil War red brick public schools, and is one of the last such buildings downtown. The building shows how mass-production technology influenced the design of civic buildings in an era of great public works. It is an efficient standardized design developed by the Office of the Building Inspector, with austere Romanesque Revival facades by Architect of the Capitol Edward Clark. The contractor was Bright and Humphrey (who also built the Pension Building). Erected in 1882, the building soon became stranded in the growing business district. From 1924 to 1949, it housed the Americanization School, a specialized branch of the public schools with a curriculum based on English and citizenship classes. This institution reflected a national movement after World War I to support the assimilation of immigrants into American society; it was central to the lives of thousands of new citizens naturalized in Washington. The building is three stories, red brick with a corbelled cornice, hipped slate roof, multi-paned windows, and heavy brick and stone portal. It was named in honor of
the celebrated orator Daniel Webster.
See also: http://dcmetrocentric.com/2010/01/15/boarded-up-big-red-at-10th-and-h/
The office building adjacent to it is the Secret Service HQ (which isn’t so secret when many of their employees wear Secret Service lanyards around their necks while coming and going). Almost certainly owned by the agency, though not likely currently in use. Who knows. They are, unsurprisingly, pretty secretive about the whole thing.
The Secret Service or their agent (GSA??)purchased the Webster School to prevent the city government from offering it on the private market and have someone renovate it for a use that they would find (convertly or overtely) incompatible with their mission next door. If they have any intention of actually renovating and using the Webster School, they have not made such intentions known.
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Secret service has offices in that area… might not be entirely abandoned