MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE
Mt Vernon Square to Union Station
3rd to 6th Streets NW

Sanborn, 1904	Today	3rd to 4th Streets Cross Section

4th to 3rd St, North Block	5th to 4th St, South Block

This area provides the most lasting impression of this section of Massachusetts Avenue. The area is a shadow of its former architectural glory: during the 1800s the street front was dominated by row housing of fairly consistent massing and depth; by 1957 , the addition of garages, storage units, and auxiliary apartments began to transform the building footprints. Today the most noticeable change is in the southern block between 5th and 4th Streets, where the massing of buildings has been completely repla ced by surface parking lots and by the Judiciary Square Apartments, which overwhelms the surrounding space. On the northern side, boarded-up or burnt-out buildings and large surface parking lots dominate the streetfront. The surface parking lots and the triangular parcels of land, which have been created by Massachusetts Avenue’s diagonal alignment superimposed over the Cartesian grid, present numerous design issues for the area. The streetfront offers little containment and, where buildings do exist, they often are located beyond a triangular parcel, set back from Massachusetts Avenue by as much as one block. In some areas between parking lots, pockets of zero lot line constructed buildings from as far back as the late 1 9th century can be found in various states of use and condition. However disjointed the buildings’ uses may be, there is a consistent interweaving of design intention, connection, and integrity that offers a vital environment for redevelopment. Every bu ilding can accommodate a street-level shop and most buildings boast windows for displays, awnings, and niches at the street level.