Fence/Entry/Perimeter
Summary
Name
Significance
Supporting
Description
The Fence/Entry/Perimeter Character Area consists of perimeter fencing along the boundaries of AFRH-W, gates at each of its active and abandoned entrances, and buildings and structures associated with those gates. Although the boundaries of AFRH-W changed frequently during its early years and again in the mid- and late twentieth century, the property’s perimeter is a character-defining feature. The Board of Commissioners ordered fencing constructed along a boundary once no further acquisitions were expected. The first documented construction of fencing dates from July 1855, when the executive committee of the Board ordered “a good and substantial board [wooden] fence be made along the road from Carmack’s garden to the lower entrance gate of the Military Asylum.”1 This board fence ran from the present intersection of Park Place and Rock Creek Church Road to what later became the Ivy Gate.
Authorized in May 1859, construction of a new gate, lodge, and guardhouse at the main entrance was completed in 1860.2 The structure, now recognized as Ivy Gate Lodge (Randolph Street Gate House, Building 90), was designed in the Gothic Revival style and constructed by local carpenters Entwistle and Barron. In 1869 the Board gave the acting governor the authority to construct another fence and “suitable gate-way with posts and double gates, proper fastenings, etc.” at the terminus of the new road from Seventh Street.3 The construction of the fence and gate corresponds with the construction of the Park Road Gate House (Building 89).
The Board charged architect Edward Clark with designing and supervising the construction of several new buildings during the early 1870s, and required him to focus some of his attention on the grounds. Clark’s tenure coincided with construction of a majority of the gate lodges: the Italianate-style Main Gate Lodge (Eagle Gate Lodge, Building 9) was completed in 1872; Cemetery Gate Lodge designed in the Gothic Revival style by John Smithmeyer (Building 21) was constructed in 1873-1876; and Park Road Gate Lodge (Building 89) was erected in 1877 with elements of the Tudor Revival style. The North Gate is contemporaneous with the construction of the Grant Building (Building 18) from 1910 to 1912. The gate cut through the perimeter property wall specifically to provide vehicular access to the Grant Building. The North Gate Lodge, constructed in 1915, was the last gatehouse built at the Home prior to the 1947/1953 Master Plan era.
Because of the inadequate grading of Rock Creek Road, the existing fencing along the northwestern boundary was continuously “washing away.” In 1876, the Board of Commissioners authorized a large-scale construction project to erect a “permanent stone and iron fence.” The fence was to extend northeast from the intersection of Rock Creek Church Road and Park Place, along the northwestern boundary of the property to the intersection of Harewood and Rock Creek Church roads, and then southeast along the property’s eastern boundary to its intersection with what is now North Capitol Street. The fence originally contained nearly 3,000 perches of stone wall, 121 brick piers, 4,600 feet of stone coping, 127 stone caps for the piers (including six bluestone caps for lodge piers), 96 feet of circular coping, and the two bronze eagles.4
In 1891, the city extended North Capitol and First streets from downtown to the Home, prompting a public call for a new entrance to the south to allow for more convenient visitor access.5 The Board responded by opening a temporary gate and approving the construction of new gate (to be a replica of the gate at the National Cemetery at the Presidio in San Francisco, California), adjacent fencing, and gatekeeper’s lodge at First Street.
In 1899 a substantial and ornamental wire fence was erected on the eastern and western boundaries of the grounds and on the southern boundary along Michigan Avenue. The southern length of the fence, along with the First Street gate and gate lodge, were removed when the Board sold the southern portion of the property in the 1950s. The western section of the fence remains on AFRH-W, and the eastern portion of the fence is extant along the former eastern boundary of the property on land de-accessioned to The Catholic University of America in 2004.
With the perimeter of the Home constant, no new fencing, gates, or gatehouses were constructed between 1915 and 1951. In the 1950s, Irving Street was cosntructed, a large southern portion of the property was sold, and North Capitol Street was extended northerly through the eastern section of the Home. At this time, a chain-link fence was installed along the property’s new boundaries and along North Capitol Street.
1 MB 1, July 1855.
2 “Index to Home Grounds,” USSAH Real Property, 1994, Box 4, Entry 46, RG 231, National Archives, Washington, D.C.
3 MB 1, 8 July 1869.
4 Senate Committee on Military Affairs, Examination into the Affairs of the United States Soldiers’ Home, Washington, testimony of Joseph K. Barnes, 83.
5 “New Entrance Needed,” The Washington Post, 31 March 1891, p.5. “Southern Gate to Soldiers’ Home,” The Washington Post, 26 April 1891, 6.
Guidelines
none recorded
Boundary
Location Notes
AFRH-W’s perimeter encloses 272 acres and is approximately 2.75 miles in length. This area also includes the footprints of the buildings and structures constructed as gatehouses and lodges in irregular elliptical areas at each of the gates, both abandoned and functioning.
Related Resources
Related Inventory Resources
Quarters 19 (is contained within / contains)
Quarters 89 (is contained within / contains)
Garage (is contained within / contains)
Eagle Gate Plantings (is contained within / contains)
Quarters 90 (is contained within / contains)
Eagle Gate (is contained within / contains)
Scale Gate Guard House (is contained within / contains)
Eagle Gate Guard House (is contained within / contains)
North Capitol Street Gate (is contained within / contains)
Eagle Gate House (is contained within / contains)
Quarters 21 (is contained within / contains)
Garage (is contained within / contains)
North Gate (is contained within / contains)
Park Road Gate (is contained within / contains)
Fence, Iron (is contained within / contains)
Randolph Street Gate (is contained within / contains)
Storage Shed (is contained within / contains)
Fence, Iron and Masonry (is contained within / contains)
Cemetery Gate (is contained within / contains)
Fence, Chain-Link (is contained within / contains)
