832 NEW HAMPSHIRE AVENUE NW
Year Built
1886
Click photo below to see full sized image.
D. Vogt, 2022
Documents
History
A typical Foggy Bottom historic row house is brick, 12-16 feet wide and 26 feet deep, and two or three stories high. Most of the houses have fenced in gardens or patios in the back. From an architectural perspective, the “late Victorian” row houses generally have flat-fronts and simple ornamentation. Builders used pressed and molded brick detailing builders to make even modest houses appear distinctive.
828-838 and 842-44 New Hampshire Ave. (as well as 2400-2416 I St.) were designed and built in 1886 by James H. Grant, for speculator Samuel Norments. The houses are two bays wide and two stories high and feature decorated cornices and segmental arches over the windows and doors. As noted in the the Historic District Nomination, "they are simple buildings, but pleasant in scale and proportion." This house has a transom window over the front door.
Resident/Owner
1985 - 1986, Mark Prenty (renter)
Recollections
Renter Mark Prenty recalls "the house had no washer or dryer when he lived there. He took his laundry on Saturdays to a dry cleaner with laundry service on P St. in Georgetown. (I thinks it's now a realtor's office.) Years later I bumped into the then residents of 832 and they told me that 832 now had a washer/dryer (I guess they squeezed it in somehow.)" email M. Prenty, May 24, 2024
Source Material
FBA History Project, Foggy Bottom Historic District Walking Tour, "Architectural Variety on New Hampshire Avenue." https://theclio.com/tour/2098/14
The sidewalk view of the house shows a black metal fence, red brick stairs and tiered garden beds. (D. Vogt, May 2022)