Capitol Hill is a virtual museum of nineteenth-century American architecture and is the largest Victorian neighborhood in the country. The Majesty of Capitol Hill captures the vibrancy of this historic community and its many architectural styles, including Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne, Richardsonian Romanesque, and Classic Revival. Nowhere else in Washington is the original plan of Pierre L’Enfant, the man who laid out the city, better preserved than on Capitol Hill.
Sites covered include Lincoln Park, Stanton Park, and the highly commercial areas of Pennsylvania Avenue, Barracks Row, and the Eastern Market. Also included in this portrait of this historic neighborhood are significant buildings and sites such as the Congressional Cemetery, and the Marine Corps Commandant’s House—the oldest public residence in the Washington after the White House. The Sewall-Belmont House, which stood at the center of American politics for two hundred years, is also included. Rounding out the collection are a number of historic private homes, updated to twenty-first century living.
About the Author
Thomas B. Grooms has owned a house on Capitol Hill since 1969. A graduate of the Parsons School of Design with a degree in environmental design, he works in the Office of the Chief Architect of the U.S. General Services Administration where he documents new landmark buildings designed by the nation’s leading architects. He has written more than a dozen monographs about buildings ranging in architectural style from the classically-inspired U.S. Courthouse in Charleston, West Virginia, to the glass-walled contemporary U.S. Courthouse in Boston.
About the Photographer
Taylor J. Lednum, a resident of Capitol Hill, is a graduate of the University of Baltimore with a degree in design and communications. He currently uses his multi-disciplinary background in the visual arts, including photography and graphic design, to produce instructional and documentary publications and videos about federal architecture for the Office of the Chief Architect of the U.S. General Services Administration.
THE MAJESTY OF CAPITOL HILL
By Thomas B. Grooms
Photographs by Taylor J. Lednum
ARCHITECTURE / Domestic
144 pp. 8 x 10
256 color photos Map Biblio.
ISBN: 9781589802285