Warder Mansion (also known as Warder-Totten House) is an apartment complex at 2633

16th Street Northwest 16th Street Northwest is a prominent north–south thoroughfare in the northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. Part of Pierre L'Enfant's design for the city, 16th Street begins just north of the White House across Lafayette Park at H Street and ...

, in the

Meridian Hill Park Meridian Hill Park, also known as Malcolm X Park, is a structured urban park located in the Washington, D.C., neighborhood of Columbia Heights; it also abuts the nearby neighborhood of Adams Morgan. The park was designed and built between 1912 ...

neighborhood of

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, ...

It is the only surviving building in the city designed by architect

Henry Hobson Richardson Henry Hobson Richardson, FAIA (September 29, 1838 – April 27, 1886) was an American architect, best known for his work in a style that became known as Richardsonian Romanesque. Along with Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, Richardson is one ...

. In an early example of preservation commitment, the building was saved from demolition in the 1920s by being disassembled and moved 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of its original site. In the 1990s, the Warder-Totten House's prospects for survival again looked bleak, but the building was saved a second time.

Warder

Benjamin H. Warder was president of Warder, Bushnell & Glessner Company, a major manufacturer of farm machinery. It was one of five companies merged in 1902 to form

International Harvester The International Harvester Company (often abbreviated by IHC, IH, or simply International ( colloq.)) was an American manufacturer of agricultural and construction equipment, automobiles, commercial trucks, lawn and garden products, household e ...

. In 1885, Warder hired Boston architect H. H. Richardson to design his house at 1515

K Street NW K Street is a major thoroughfare in the United States capital of Washington, D.C., known as a center for numerous lobbyists and advocacy groups. In political discourse, "K Street" has become a metonym for Washington's lobbying industry since m ...

. Richardson died in 1886, but his firm completed the house in 1888. Warder died in 1894, and his widow occupied the house until 1921.

Totten

In 1923, the Warder House was about to be demolished to erect an office building. Architect

George Oakley Totten, Jr. George Oakley Totten Jr. (December 5, 1866 – February 1, 1939), was one of Washington D.C.’s most prolific and skilled architects in the Gilded Age. His international training and interest in architectural decoration led to a career of continu ...

bought the exterior stone (except the front doorway, which reportedly went to the Smithsonian) and much of the interior woodwork. He transported the building, piece by piece (reportedly in a

Model T Ford The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans. The relati ...

), to its present Meridian Hill site, reassembled it over two years, and converted it into an apartment house. The reconstructed building later housed the

National Lutheran Council The National Lutheran Council (NLC) was a cooperative agency of most of the Lutheran church bodies in the United States. It was established in 1918 and was replaced in 1966 by the Lutheran Council in the United States of America. History The cele ...

and the Antioch College of Law. The building was listed on the D.C. Inventory in 1964, and on the

National Register 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 1972. Antioch College moved out in 1986. The building was vacant for more than a dozen years, and was largely reduced to a shell by fires and vandalism. It was placed on the D.C. Preservation League's Most Endangered Places List in 1996, and remained on that list for several years. Renovated in 2001–02, it now serves as the entrance to Warder Mansion, a complex of 38 one- and two-bedroom apartments carved out of the house and a 9-story addition.

Furniture

The Warder house once contained custom-made furnishings. Warder's daughter Alice (1877–1952) married diplomat John Work Garrett (1872–1942) at the house in December 1908, with First Lady

Edith Roosevelt Edith Kermit Roosevelt ( née Carow; August 6, 1861 – September 30, 1948) was the second wife of President Theodore Roosevelt and the First Lady of the United States from 1901 to 1909. She also was the Second Lady of the United States in 1901 ...

in attendance. Ambassador Garrett eventually inherited his family's Baltimore mansion, "Evergreen," and subsequently moved some of the furnishings there. Evergreen eventually became Johns Hopkins University's

Evergreen Museum & Library Evergreen Museum & Library is a historic house museum and research library in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is located between the campuses of the Notre Dame of Maryland University and Loyola University Maryland. It is operated by Johns H ...

; its Warder pieces include a set of three Thomas Sheraton-inspired chairs and an ornately inlaid center table from the D.C. house's drawing room, and a handsome pair of possibly-architect-designed "throne" chairs carved with sunflowers, an ornate "W," and the year 1887. One of the Warder dining chairs is in the collection of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

Gallery

File:Warder House 1515 K St NW circa 1900.jpg, Warder House, at 1515 K Street NW, circa 1900. File:Warder Diningroom WashingtonDC 1885-88.jpg, Warder dining room, circa 1900. File:Warder-Totten House 2012-09-13 18-06-33.jpg, Warder Mansion Apartments in 2012. Note the 9-story rear addition, right. File:Armchair MET ADA56.jpg, Colonial Revival armchair (1886–88), by Francis H. Bacon for A. H. Davenport and Company, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Notes

External links