Built as a horse stable in 1878, the old carriage house (which you can’t see, behind the gate) at 111 10th St. SE was converted in 1910 into an organ factory by Samuel Waters, who had moved his business from Georgetown to Capitol Hill. Water’s business — he built and repaired organs, and was an inventor who received a number of patents over the years — was very successful and numerous churches and theatres around the city boasted of having a Waters organ. He did not add heat or electricity to the factory; instead all mechanical energy came from a small gas-powered engine (which has since been added to the Smithsonian’s collections). After Waters’ death in 1963, developer William Richards and architects Huff and Drayton converted the carriage house factory into a unique living space with 26-foot ceilings and an interior balcony overlooking the living room. The house has had several owners since the late 1960s and underwent a renovation in 2007.

Waters, his wife and son lived next door to the organ factory at 109 10th St. SE. Before DC zoning laws were enacted in the early 20th century, many people lived next to, in front of, or over their businesses, such as grocery stores, tailors, breweries and machine shops. As land became more valuable, the population denser and health effects known, efforts were made by city officials to separate residential, commercial and industrial uses through zoning laws. It is not recorded what the Waters’ neighbors thought of the organ business in their midst, but noise might well have been a nuisance factor in the manufacture and testing of organs.

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

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

Pond at the National Arboretum, posted earlier: