With its wide welcoming porch and large lot, the large brick house at the corner of 8th and East Capitol streets NE has been a distinctive sight for almost 150 years. The three-story house on four lots shows both the restraint of early Italianate houses and a hint of the flair of the Victorian era to come. Louisa and James Whelpley, then a clerk at the Treasury Department, built this family home in 1876. Ten years later, he was named by President Grover Cleveland to be assistant treasurer of the United States. Also active in DC affairs, he later became president of the Board of Education and president of the Eastern Building and Loan Association. The house was sold in 1919 and served as a special needs school, a rooming house and an apartment house, until 2000 when it was sold to a family who embarked on a much-needed restoration. In that endeavor they were guided by an 1893 photograph showing the exterior of the house.

This is another house I’ve always admired on the Hill, and it’s nice to finally learn its history.

*****

For more information on these historic sites, go to the restoration society’s web page for the walking tour at http://chrs.org/historic-sites-tour-2020/

Best to view in "Original" because other versions resized by Pbase are decidedly unsharp.

Old and new, posted earlier: