Funkstown – Still There - the Schneider Triangle on Washington Circle

By Frank Leone

You may have noticed that northeast of Washington Circle is a triangular block of impressive dark red brick rowhouses. The entire block was designed by Thomas F. Schneider, one of Washington D.C.’s most important architect/builders of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Built in 1889, it stands as “an excellent example of nineteenth century architectural style and urban development” and “remains as a virtually intact reminder of the late-nineteenth century residential neighborhood that once surrounded Washington Circle.”

The Schneider Triangle is in the West End, facing Washington Circle and bordered by K Street, 22nd Street, and New Hampshire Avenue. Originally built as single-family homes, the 22 residences now include the Embassy of Tajikistan (est. 2002), GWU medical offices, and subdivided apartments. Most of the buildings have an assessed value of around $2 million.

The Triangle from Washington Circle – the unit in the middle, at 2203 K Street, was built in 1999 to replace a unit destroyed by fire before renovation in the 1970s. (F. Leone Mar. 2025)

The Triangle’s historic landmark designation notes that the block is a personal interpretation of the Queen Anne and Richardson Romanesque Revival styles of the late 1800s, enlivened by fanciful finely carved decorative features. The buildings contain round turrets, highly articulated chimneys, dormers covered by flat gently slowing slate roofs, and grouped windows under segmental arches. Each house is distinctive with rich and differing detail, but consistent use of materials (pressed red brick and brown ashlar stone, trim in tin and tile), façade heights, and building vocabulary make it a cohesive entity. The round turrets echo the “Round Tops” – several brick buildings with octagonal cupolas – that bordered on Washington Circle in the early 1800s and gave their name to an infamous local Irish American street gang.

Detail showing stone and brick work on New Hampshire Avenue. (F. Leone Mar. 2025)

Thomas F. Schneider (1859-1938) influenced the development of D.C. The son of German immigrant printer, he worked for Adolf Kluss’s firm, including on the Smithsonian Arts and Industries building. He started his own firm at age 24 and is credited with designing 2,000 houses and about 15 hotels and apartment buildings. His most notable work was the Cairo Apartments (1894), which led D.C. to adopt its building height limit, and rowhouses on the 1700 block of Q Street (1889-92). (You can also read about Schneider’s murderous brother Howard, here.)

In the years after the Civil War, D.C. – and Foggy Bottom/West End – experienced a population boom. Schneider designed and built the 22 houses for property owner John W. Paine on a speculative basis – i.e., without a pre-existing commitment from a buyer or tenant. The houses were intended to appeal to professionals and civil servants, and so they did. The 1900 census shows most were occupied by non-immigrant white single families (a few with servants or boarders). Occupations encompassed government clerks, including at the Capitol and the Smithsonian, or other government jobs including engraver, watchman, and messenger. Other occupations included lawyer, pharmacist, school teacher, bank cashier, clergyman, real estate agent, bookkeeper, telegraph operator, grocer, plumber, and policeman.

The 1940 Census indicates residents continued to be nearly all white, but almost half of the units operated as boarding houses, each with up to eight apartments. Occupations of the residents (including the boarders) still included many government clerks, including those at the new Social Security Board, State Department, Internal Revenue, Naval Observatory, Navy Yard, Veterans Administration, Surgeon General’s office, and Commerce building. Other government occupations included press worker at the Gov’t Printing Office, lithographer at Commerce, examiner at the Bureau of Printing, gun mechanic at the Navy Yard, Sergeant of the Guards at the U.S. National Museum (now Smithsonian), and Department of the Interior guard. Some of the non-government jobs were more working class than the earlier period – they included theater owner, fire chief, nurse, magazine writer, instrument maker, salesman for (unidentified) brewing company, gas company mechanic, insurance salesman, typist, butcher, restaurant waitress drug store soda jerker or waiter, saleslady, beautician, taxicab driver, and “organizer for clubs.”  The 1950 census reflected similar residents.

The prominent corner of New Hampshire Avenue and Washington Circle shows both variety and consistency in building styles. (F. Leone Mar. 2025)

By the 1960s, the conditions of the rowhouses deteriorated, and the West End underwent redevelopment, threatening the existence of the block. Starting In 1976, however, the block was purchased, renovated as “luxury residences,” and thus restored as single-family homes. The Triangle was added to the DC Inventory of Historic Sites in 1978 and the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, designations welcomed by developer Marylin Taylor.

Sources:  Schneider Triangle National Register Nomination (1980); HistoryQuest DC; Federal Census 1900, 1940, 1950; FBA History Project.

In honor of  World Pride,  check out the Rainbow History Project and our post on Foggy Bottom’s Walt Whitman Park. June is also traditionally National Immigrant Heritage Month – see our posts on German and Irish heritage in Foggy Bottom (with more to come).