Harry Wardman (April 11, 1872 – March 18, 1938) was a

real estate developer Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to others. R ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

during the early 20th century whose developments included landmark

hotels A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

, luxury apartment buildings, and many

rowhouse In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United State ...

s. When he died in 1938, one-tenth of the residents of Washington were said to live in a Wardman-built home.

Personal life

Born in

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1872 (the 1900 federal census - Washington, D.C. - says he was born April 1869), Wardman was the son of English

textile Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

workers. In 1889, at age 17, he arrived in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, where he worked in a department store. He later moved to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, where he worked at the

Wanamaker's John Wanamaker Department Store was one of the first department stores in the United States. Founded by John Wanamaker in Philadelphia, it was influential in the development of the retail industry including as the first store to use price tags. ...

department store and met his wife, Mary Hudson. They had one daughter, Alice. In 1898, he apprenticed himself to a local carpenter to learn construction. By 1900, Wardman was widowed. In 1902, Wardman moved to

, where he worked as a

carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, Shipbuilding, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. ...

, learned to build staircases, and soon got into building homes and apartments. In 1908, he married Lillian Glascox. Harry and Lillian had one daughter, Helen.

Building career

Rowhouses

The first independent project Wardman embarked upon was a six-house ensemble in

Sixteenth Street Heights Sixteenth Street Heights is a large neighborhood of rowhouses, duplexes, and American Craftsman and American Foursquare detached houses in Northwest Washington, D.C. Geography Definitions of Sixteenth Street Heights' boundaries vary, although ...

, on Longfellow Street, in 1898; while the term did not exist yet, these were what would later be termed "rowhouses". The success of the Longfellow Street project pushed Wardman to scale this model up in Columbia Heights, in 1907, wherein he built blocks of rowhouses branching east and west off of Fourteenth Street, between Monroe Street and Spring Street. These 750 rowhouses included new design elements, most notably the front

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

. Wardman built many of the city's

s, especially in the neighborhoods of Columbia Heights, Bloomingdale, Eckington and Fort Stevens Ridge. To this day, his homes are renowned for their high-quality construction and materials. Some of his design ideas were copied by the dozens of other developers — Lewis Brueninger, Harry Kite, Francis Blundon, David Dunigan, and others — who built massive rows of townhouses in the District.

Apartments

Wardman's success at rowhouses allowed him to move up to building luxury

apartment building An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ...

s, mostly designed by architect Albert H. Beers and

Frank Russell White Frank Russell White (May 2, 1889 – October 24, 1961) was an American architect who designed hotels, apartment buildings, commercial properties, and thousands of homes in Washington, D.C. A native of Brooklyn, White's family moved to the na ...

, and located along 16th Street, NW,

Connecticut Avenue Connecticut Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C., and suburban Montgomery County, Maryland. It is one of the diagonal avenues radiating from the White House, and the segment south of Florida Avenue was one ...

, Columbia Heights, and elsewhere. They include: * Northbrook Court - 3420/3426 16th Street, NW * The Chastleton - 1701 16th Street, NW * Somerset House - 1801 16th Street, NW * The Wardman - 1916 17th Street, NW * The Melwood - 1803 Biltmore Street, NW * The Brittany - 2001 16th Street, NW * The Dresden - 2126 Connecticut Avenue, NW * The Maxwell - 1419 Clifton Street, NW * The Nelson - 1733 20th Street, NW * Chatham Courts - 1707 Columbia Road, NW *

Northumberland Apartments The Northumberland Apartments is a historic apartment building in the U Street Corridor of Washington, D.C. The Classical Revival building was constructed in 1909-10 by local real estate developer Harry Wardman and Albert H. Beers. In 1980, the ...

- 2039 New Hampshire Avenue, NW * Rutland Court - 1725 17th Street, NW * South Cathedral Mansions - 2900 Connecticut Avenue, NW * Wardman Court (formerly, Clifton Terrace) - 1312 Clifton Street, NW *

Wardman Row Wardman Row is a block of historic apartment buildings at 1416-1440 R Street, NW in Washington, D.C. The buildings, located in the Greater Fourteenth Street Historic District were designed in 1911 by Harry Wardman and Albert Beers. In 1984, the ...

- 1416-1440 R Street, NW * Copley Plaza - 1514 17th Street, NW * Cavanaugh Court - 1526 17th Street, NW *

Apartment Building at 2225 N Street The 2225 N Street Apartment Building in the West End neighborhood of Northwest Washington, D.C., was constructed in 1924 by local real estate developers Harry Wardman and Eugene Waggaman. The building was added to the District of Columbia Inven ...

* The Brighton - 2123 California Street, NW

Hotels

In 1918, he opened the 1,200-room Wardman Park Hotel along Connecticut Avenue in

Woodley Park Woodley Park is a neighborhood in Northwest, Washington, DC. It is bounded on the north by Woodley Road and Klingle Road, on the east by the National Zoo and Rock Creek Park, on the south by Calvert Street, on the southwest by Cleveland Avenue, a ...

. The hotel was successful, meeting the strong demand of an influx of government workers after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. It was expanded in 1928 with the Wardman Tower, an adjoining apartment building. The hotel was sold to

Sheraton Hotels Sheraton Hotels and Resorts is an international semi-luxury hotel chain owned by Marriott International. As of June 30, 2020, Sheraton operates 446 hotels with 155,617 rooms globally, including locations in North America, Africa, Asia Pacific, Ce ...

in 1953, becoming the Sheraton-Park Hotel. The main building was demolished in 1977 and replaced with a modern hotel, the Sheraton Washington Hotel. The Wardman Tower was saved and was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1984.Description of listing of Wardman Park Annex and Arcade (Wardman Tower and Arcade) on National Register of Historic Places
''in'
website of National Register of Historic Places.com
Accessed September 9, 2009. The 1977 Sheraton Washington Hotel has since been renamed the

Marriott Wardman Park The Washington Marriott Wardman Park was a hotel on Connecticut Avenue adjacent to the Woodley Park station of the Washington Metro in the Woodley Park neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The hotel had 1,152 rooms, of event space, and of exhibi ...

, in honor of Wardman's original building. In 1926 he built The Carlton Hotel, designed by Armenian-American architect

Mihran Mesrobian Mihran Mesrobian ( hy, Միհրան Մեսրոպեան; 10 May 1889 – 21 September 1975) was an Armenian-American architect whose career spanned over fifty years and in several countries. Having received an education in the Mimar Sinan Fine Art ...

and today known as

The St. Regis Washington, D.C. The St. Regis Washington, D.C. known for many years as The Carlton Hotel, is an historic hotel located at 923 16th and K Streets, N.W. in Washington, D.C. two blocks north of the White House. History The Beaux-Arts and Neo-Renaissance style luxur ...

In 1928, Wardman built the Hay-Adams Hotel, also designed by Mesrobian and located across from Lafayette Park. Other landmarks built by Wardman include the

British Embassy This is a list of diplomatic missions of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, excluding honorary consulates. The UK has one of the largest global networks of diplomatic missions. UK diplomatic missions to capitals of other Com ...

. Wardman's efforts made him wealthy, and for a time he lived extravagantly in Washington and abroad. But most of his $30 million fortune vanished in the

1929 stock market crash The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...

. He continued to build middle-class homes. Wardman died in 1938 from cancer and is buried in

Rock Creek Cemetery Rock Creek Cemetery is an cemetery with a natural and rolling landscape located at Rock Creek Church Road, NW, and Webster Street, NW, off Hawaii Avenue, NE, in the Petworth neighborhood of Washington, D.C., United States. It is across the stree ...

Suburban developments

In 1927, he assumed the presidency of Washington Suburban Realty Company, developer of

Cheverly, Maryland Cheverly is a town in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, located very close to Washington, D.C., though not bordering it directly. The town was founded in 1918 and incorporated in 1931. Per the 2020 census, the population was 6,170 ...

. He held that position until the

stock market crash of 1929 The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wardman, Harry American real estate businesspeople Businesspeople from Washington, D.C. 1872 births 1938 deaths English emigrants to the United States Deaths from cancer Burials at Rock Creek Cemetery