Tilden Gardens is a six-building apartment complex in the

Cleveland Park Cleveland Park is a residential neighborhood in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. It is located at and bounded approximately by Rock Creek Park to the east, Wisconsin and Idaho Avenues to the west, Klingle and Woodley Roads to the so ...

neighborhood of Washington, DC. Constructed in the 1930s, it was the largest luxury apartment complex of its time. Tilden Gardens fills the block between Connecticut Avenue, Tilden Street and Sedgwick Street in Cleveland Park. All six buildings center on a three-acre multilevel garden that has been described as the best of its kind in Washington, DC.

History

The Tilden Gardens units were originally planned in 1927, as cooperatives (co-ops). However, due to the collapse of the housing market, most of them were not completed until after the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. The four later buildings' apartments were rented out through the 1930s. In 1935-36 and again in 1939, one apartment was rented to then Senator Harry Truman and his wife. The first two Tilden Gardens buildings became legally separate cooperatives. By 1939, it became possible for owners to sell apartments again, and the later four buildings were incorporated as a single "Tilden Gardens" co-op.

Description

Counting all six buildings, Tilden Gardens has 210 apartments, of which 170 are in the "Tilden Gardens" co-op as such. The later buildings were modified to include fewer large apartments and more one-bedroom apartments, in recognition of Depression economics. Three of the original six buildings have an X shape and three have an H shape, After the designs had been approved, the developer decided to rotate and combine the F and G buildings. The resulting structure (still known as the F/G building) ended up with the oddity of two identical front doors a few feet apart. The Tilden Gardens buildings have custom-made brick with limestone trim. The architecture has been described as Tudor Revival and i Art Deco All the apartments have at least two exposures, and many have three.

Notable tenants

Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

Lucius D. Clay General Lucius Dubignon Clay (April 23, 1898 – April 16, 1978) was a senior officer of the United States Army who was known for his administration of occupied Germany after World War II. He served as the deputy to General of the Army Dwight D ...

Joseph Younger Joseph Younger (July 1, 1894 – May 16, 1932) was an architect who lived and practiced in Washington, D.C., and is especially notable for his designs of the Kennedy–Warren Apartment Building on Connecticut Avenue NW, and for the Sixth Presb ...

{{cite book, url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q56285395, title=Washington and Baltimore Art Deco: A Design History of Neighboring Cities, last1=Striner, first1=Richard, last2=Blair, first2=Melissa, date=2014, page=204, publisher=

Johns Hopkins University Press The Johns Hopkins University Press (also referred to as JHU Press or JHUP) is the publishing division of Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and is the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. The press publi ...

, publication-place=Baltimore, Md., isbn=978-1-42-141162-0, oclc=844373062, ol=26120936M, language=en-US, access-date=September 19, 2019

References

1927 establishments in Washington, D.C. Apartment buildings in Washington, D.C.