The large house
owned by John N. Forbes on the southeast corner of Connecticut Avenue and L
Street and several others were replaced by the Stoneleigh apartment building in
1903. It was designed by James G. Hill,
and built by Secretary of State John Hay (1838-1905), right, who has assembled
the various parcels necessary.[1]
The
building was built at a cost of $600,000, and featured 90 apartments all
furnished with elaborate wood paneling and the latest of conveniences. It was the first apartment building to
separate the usual bank of two adjoining elevators to decrease the time spent
waiting for egress. The building was set
back from Connecticut Avenue, which it faced, with a central courtyard for
vehicular access. Hayes relatives sold
the apartment building in 1926, when the courtyard was filled in for commercial
storefronts.
Harry Wardman
became its owner in April of 1927, purchasing it for $1.6 million; just five
months later, he sold it to out of town investors for $2.6 million. Following the stock market crash of 1929, the
building was sold at public auction in 1933 for just $800,000 to the
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.
In 1962, the
building sold for $4.5 million or $150 a square foot, which set a record for
Washington real estate at the time. It
was razed in 1965 and replaced by the Blake Building, which has been refaced
since its original construction.
Copyright Paul K. Williams
[1]
Hayes, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division; Stoneleigh Court
via Smithsonian Institution.
1 comment:
That must have been a mammoth profit by the original land owner. He probably couldn't wait to get all the residents out with house removals after landing that big of a deal!
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