The Fireman's Insurance Company Building is an historic building in
Washington, D.C.
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It is located in the
Penn Quarter neighborhood, immediately across the street from the
U.S. Navy Memorial and near the
Stephenson Memorial as well as the historic
Central National Bank building.
History
The
Queen Anne-style building, at 303 Seventh Street, N.W., was completed in 1882. Rather than being built in a more elaborate Queen Anne style common throughout many of Washington's neighborhoods, this building has a more restrained look. Instead of a
conical roof, deep detail on the façade, and a colorful exterior, the building has only a golden
cupola
In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome.
The word derives, via Italian, from ...
and
dome
A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...
, and a red-brick exterior with muted detail. The structure was built to fit into the corner created by Indiana Avenue and Seventh Street. The Fireman's Insurance Company owned the building through the 1950s.
The cupola was removed and much of the exterior was altered by the late-1960s. In the years after, the building was restored to an appearance very near its original, with the golden cupola and dome added to an appearance very close to the original. The exterior was also returned to its original red-brick look.
Gallery
File:National Grange, Fireman's Insurance Company building LCCN2016826419.jpg, The building as it appeared in the early 1900s
File:Fireman's Insurance Building, Washington, D.C. before its restoration in 1980s LCCN2011632657.tif, The building in the early 1980s, with the dome and cupola removed as well as the exterior painted, before being restored to its original appearance.
File:Fireman's Insurance Building 14589a.tif, The exterior partially restored, though the ground floor is still not restored and the golden dome and cupola have not been added.
File:Firemen's Insurance Company Building, Washington, D.C. 2012.JPG, A close-up of the Starbucks on the ground floor.
References
External links
Aerial view of Fireman’s Insurance building ''DC Past''
Buildings and structures in Washington, D.C.
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