The lecture will take place in person at The First Congregational United Church of Christ, Second Floor, 945 G Street NW, Washington, DC. Reservations are not required. $10.00 for Latrobe Chapter members, student members (full time) free with ID, $15.00 for non-members. Doors will open at 6:30 pm for socialization and refreshments; lecture will begin at 7:00 pm. Masks are strongly encouraged for this event.
Sixteenth Street NW has a rich architectural history, beginning with the construction of Benjamin Henry Latrobe’s St. John’s Episcopal Church, completed in 1816, and continuing to the sleek apartment buildings that have filled gaps on the street in the 21st century. Among these, Sixteenth Street’s apartment buildings have represented nearly every era of apartment construction in the city. Along with Connecticut Avenue, Sixteenth Street offers some of the city’s finest apartment houses, constructed by notable architects and developers. This talk will highlight the most notable of these structures and attempt to place them in their historical context.
These buildings, along with the street’s grand hotels, have played multiple roles as 16th Street’s history has unspooled. Our talk will explore one role which may seem out of character with the street’s august reputation – providing the setting for some of Washington’s most distinctive night spots of the 1930s and 1940s. We’ll sketch the unique personalities and describe the extraordinary interior designs of several of these nightclubs, as well as 16th Street’s contributions to the groundswell that eventually swept away segregated entertainment in Washington.
John DeFerrari was born and raised in Washington, D.C., and holds a master’s degree in English Literature from Harvard University. In addition to penning the popular Streets of Washington blog, DeFerrari is also a trustee of the D.C. Preservation League and serves as Review Editor of Washington History, the magazine of the D.C. History Center. He is the author of four books: Lost Washington, D.C. (2011), Historic Restaurants of Washington, D.C.: Capital Eats (2013), Capital Streetcars: Early Mass Transit in Washington, D.C. (2015), and co-author with Peter Sefton of Sixteenth Street NW: Washington, DC's Avenue of Ambitions (2022).
Peter Sefton came to Washington to attend George Washington University and now considers the city his adoptive home. The recipient of a master’s degree in Architectural History from the University of Virginia, he has been active in historic preservation since the early 2000s and serves as a trustee of the D.C. Preservation League. He has made numerous presentations on the history of the built environment ton a wide variety of groups. In addition to co-authoring Sixteenth Street NW: Washington, DC's Avenue of Ambitions (2022) with John DeFerrari, he is author of Midcentury Modern Churches of Southwest Washington, D.C. (2015).
