MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE
Naval Observatory to Sheridan Circle
Rock Creek Bridge to California Avenue NW

Today	Cross Section, California Ave to Rock Creek Bridge

Waterside Drive to Belmont Road, North Block	Waterside Drive to Belmont Road, South Block

California Avenue to Belmont Road, North Block	Belmont Road to California Avenue, South Block

2551 Massachusetts Avenue hosts the Islamic Center, which serves as the religious center for American Moslems. When the architectural firm of Irwin Porter and Sons built it in 1949, they sited the steel frame mosque to face Mecca and filled it wit h an array of Arabic art, stained glass, and wall tiles. The graceful minaret tower rises 160 feet, which defies the city’s height restrictions. However, the Egyptian Ministry of Works made concessions to the neighborhood aesthetic, such as facing the m osque in limestone, which is the preferred material of the Massachusetts Avenue’ architects.

In 1931, the New York architecture firm of Delano and Aldrich built the Japanese Embassy at 2516 Massachusetts Avenue. This Georgian building exemplifies the last stage of Beaux-Arts style in Washington, D.C. and is one of the few full-scale forma l estates in the city. The estate, which was designed to serve as an embassy, includes the house, a teahouse, two chancery buildings, and recreational facilities. The building incorporates iconography to serve a diplomatic function; the curved roof edge s resemble a Japanese pagoda and the concave arch over the front door suggests a rising sun. The Ippakutei teahouse, which was built in Japan and shipped to the United States in 1960, signifies the 100th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the tw o nations.

Embassy of Japan