Rural Remnants of Washington County: An Architectural Survey of Washington's Historic Farms and Estates

From project overview: "Rural Remnants of Washington County is a comprehensive survey aimed at identifying and cataloging extant buildings that are associated with the District of Columbia's former rural landscape. The survey was conducted by the D.C. Historic Preservation Office (HPO) during the spring and summers of 2012 and 2013. The survey area included the former Washington County-that is, all that area that is within the District of Columbia, but beyond the original boundaries of the city (the L'Enfant Plan) and Georgetown. Until the Organic Act of 1871 that consolidated Washington City, Georgetown, and Washington County into a single municipality, Washington County was a separate political entity. Throughout the 19th century and even well into the 20th century, Washington County was rural and semi-rural in character. Wooded and cultivated lands punctuated by working farmsteads and gentlemen estates defined the landscape. During the early-to mid-20th century, however, this agrarian landscape was being eradicated as the city's suburbs developed out to the limits of the District of Columbia in accordance with the 1893 Permanent Highway Plan. Despite the progressive subdivision of Washington County into residential neighborhoods, and the ensuing abandonment and demolition of the farm houses and farm buildings, some of the County's pre-suburban buildings survived the cultural shift. Many of these 'survivors' are already recognized, and many are designated landmarks. Others are known at a very local level by neighborhood historians, or by the occupants, but have not been widely recognized, while others may not have been known at all before this survey. Many have been severely altered, or even moved from their original locations, often making their identification challenging. Through this survey, the farms and estate buildings of the former Washington County are being re-discovered and highlighted for their associations with the city's rural past. The goal of the Rural Remnants of Washington County survey was to develop an inventory of rural resources, to record basic historical information about them, to conduct more intensive-level research on a select number of properties, and to develop a list of recommendations for future preservation action. The survey methodology, which depended heavily upon maps, was designed to identify, as best as possible, all standing buildings that were built before the wide-scale subdivision and residential development of Washington County. Using methodology developed by HPO, staff collected on-site and archival information on 67 resources, photographed them and entered the historical and architectural information into the city's building survey database (DCHPS) for recordation and analysis." Funding for this project was provided in part through a fiscal year 2013 Historic Preservation Fund grant to the D.C. Historic Preservation Office (project number DC-13-024, grant number P13AF00123) administered by the State, Tribal, and Local Plans and Grants Division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Rural Remnants of Washington County: An Architectural Survey of Washington's Historic Farms and Estates

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