Industrial use In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the
Dupont Circle neighborhood in
Washington, D.C. was an area of a large number of elegant and impressive homes owned by businesspeople, politicians, and other members of
high society. Their residential properties often included a
carriage house or stable located behind their houses or in a nearby alley. Some of these industrial buildings were designed by prominent architects and featured elaborate architectural details. On the west side of the neighborhood, three such buildings were constructed in the early 1900s. The
Walsh Stable, located in an alley bounded by 21st Street, 22nd Street,
P Street, and
Massachusetts Avenue NW, was built in 1903 for millionaire miner
Thomas Walsh. The stable was erected a few hundred feet from his mansion, the
Walsh-McLean House. In 1905 the
Spencer Carriage House and Stable was constructed in the Twining Court alley, bounded by 21st Street, 22nd Street, O Street, and P Street NW. It was built for railroad executive
Samuel Spencer, who lived two blocks away at
2012 Massachusetts Avenue NW. In 1906
Martha Codman (1856–1948) had a large house built in Washington, D.C., to serve as her winter residence. She was a wealthy socialite, philanthropist, and art collector, who had inherited a large amount of money from her parents, Martha Pickman Rogers and
John Amory Codman, a businessman who earned his fortune in the
clipper ship trade. Like many wealthy people of the period, Codman split her time between winter and summer residences; the latter was in
Newport, Rhode Island. The property was converted into commercial space and rented to various tenants for the next decade. A newspaper advertisement in 1941 listed the property as 8,600 square feet (799 sq m), and available to rent for $500 a month. An ad in 1949 marketed the property as a possible headquarters for a national organization, automobile showroom, or store space. It said the space included a garage for six vehicles, around twelve offices on the second floor, and an open
floor plan on the first floor. The following year a
Goodyear service store moved from
Connecticut Avenue and N Street into the property. The business remained there until the 1970s, during which time a one-story concrete addition was built onto the front of the store. By 1976 the property was home to the Last Hurrah (also known as the Last Hurrah Supper Club), a heterosexual nightclub that was also popular with the local gay community. In 1981 the owners of the property attempted to have the building demolished and replaced with a residential building. The local
Advisory Neighborhood Commission supported the plan, but the project was later cancelled. That same year a restaurant called the African Room opened in the rear portion of the building, facing Twining Court. The Last Hurrah continued operating until 1983 when Glen Thompson opened Badlands, a
gay bar, later that year. Thompson had previously opened a gay bar in 1976, the Fraternity House, in the former Spencer Carriage House and Stable that shared the alley with Badlands. The area surrounding Badlands was also home to gay bar, Mr. P's, that had opened at 2147 P Street NW in 1976. The bar became one of the most popular gay clubs in Washington, D.C., and remained open for 28 years. It was renamed Apex in 2002 and closed unexpectedly in 2011 when the property owner sold the building. After Apex closed, local businessman Allen Carroll purchased the building and opened a second location of the
Capitol Hill lesbian bar,
Phase 1, in February 2012. Phase One of Dupont never attracted large crowds, and the bar closed the following year. While the building was still operating as Badlands, local historic preservationists with the Dupont Circle Citizens Association, Dupont Circle Conservancy, and DC Preservation League submitted an application to have the building designated a historic landmark, citing its significance as a surviving carriage house and stable, along with its connection to Codman and her architect cousin, Codman Jr. When the Dupont Circle Historic District boundary was expanded in 2005, the building was one of 70
contributing properties, including designated historic landmarks, that were added to the historic district. The other landmarks were
The Cairo, Spencer Carriage House and Stable, Walsh Stable,
2225 N Street Apartment Building, and
Embassy Gulf Service Station, which is sited across the street. The building is one of 101 alley structures in the historic district. In 2015 the building was sold to Rock Creek Property Group for $2.75 million. The following year the company announced an extensive restoration and renovation process would begin to transform the building into office space: "Our goal with this property is to bring it back to life. After years of neglect, the original grandeur of the architecture was lost." OTJ Architects and Eichberg Construction were hired for the project. Due to the building's historic landmark status and location in proximity to
Rock Creek Park, the renovations had to be approved by the
United States Commission of Fine Arts and city's Historic Preservation Review Board. The project, which included adding a roof deck and skylights, window and facade restoration, and replication of the original carriage house doors, was completed in 2018. ==Building==