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Dupont Circle Dupont Circle is not a legal neighborhood of Washington DC but a community within Old City 2. If you have questions about the following data or want more information, contact us at 202-965-3715. If you would like to be included in periodic e-mail updates on this or other neighborhoods, send your name and e-mail address to info@hananhomes.com. As of September 30, 2008, 11 single-family homes were for sale in Dupont Circle, with five between $1-2 million, one for over $3 million and one for $4 million. Six were under contract ranging from listing prices of $825,000 and $1.7 million. In the third quarter of 2008, five homes sold from $640,000 to $2.35 million. In the first half of 2008, 13 single-family homes sold in DuPont Circle. In 2007, there were 40 sales, while 46 homes sold in 2006. The average sale price in the first half of 2008 was $1,608,000. This compares to $1,445,486 and $1,626,622 in 2007 and 2006, respectively. The average list price was $1,707,146 in the first half of 2008, $1,493,210 in 2007, and $1,687,553 in 2006. Listed below are the sales by price range. Be advised that since Dupont Circle is not a legal neighborhood, boundaries are estimates.
The number of condominiums and cooperatives that sold in the third quarter of 2008 totaled 56 (with five over $500,000), with 25 under contract. There were 48 condos and coops for sale, with one over $1million, as of September 30, 2008. For the first half of 2008, 111 condos/coops sold, 333 for the year 2007, and 333 in 2006. The average sales price was $382,693 in the first half of 2008, $408,088 in 2007, and $394,158 in 2006. Listed below are the sales by price range.
The remaining mansions of Dupont Circle are no longer residential but house offices, embassies and private clubs. Their styles include Second Empire, Victorian, Colonial Revival, French Country Chateau, and Beaux Arts. The rowhouses that lie on the numbered and lettered streets are of brick and stone and include Queen Anne, Victorian, Richardsonian Romanesque Revival, Renaissance, and Georgian Revival. Some of the rows of houses were designed as a unit, while others were individually designed. The Strivers Section is characterized by late 19th and early 20th century Italianate rowhouses and apartment houses. Over the last 20 to 30 years, the majority of rowhouses of Dupont Circle have been renovated and refurbished. Several condominiums have also either been created from existing or replaced buildings and are generally pricier than Logan Circle or Shaw. Dupont Circle is likely the most cosmopolitan and urban neighborhood of the city. It was named by Washingtonian magazine in 2005 as one of the best neighborhoods for singles. The commercial corridor is along Connecticut Avenue. In addition to the health food stores and vegetarian restaurants remaining from the 1960s invasion, the neighborhood is concentrated with a variety of unique culinary restaurants, art galleries, boutiques, and fine bookstores. Every Sunday there is a farmer's market on 20th Street between P and Q Streets. In addition to the outstanding mansions that have become a tourist attraction, there are several museums in Dupont Circle. The Phillips Collection, which was the first museum of modern art in the US, is in the western section of Dupont Circle. The Society of the Cincinnati Museum is located on Massachusetts Avenue as is the National Trust for Historic Preservation. There is a Dupont Circle Metro station. Ross Elementary School is located on R Street. Emerson Preparatory School, the oldest coed college preparatory school in Washington, is on 18th Street. Although what is now DuPont Circle was part of L'Enfant's original plan for the city, the area remained rural fields and marsh until after the Civil War. Slash Run, which was a tributary of Rock Creek that flowed through the area, was home to slaughterhouses and small farms. City improvements spurred by local resident Alexander "Boss" Shepherd, Director of the Board of Public Works and Territorial Governor, began in the 1870s. Slash Run became a covered sewer, a new bridge was constructed across Rock Creek at P Street, a federal park was established at the intersection of avenues named after three of the original states, Connecticut Avenue was paved up to Florida Avenue, and tracks along the avenue by the Metropolitan Railroad Company. In 1873, Boss Shepherd built three stone manors five blocks south of Dupont Circle, known as Shepherd's Row, one of which was his own home and the others were occupied by Russian and Chinese legations. Wealthy investors, including members of the California Syndicate (see history of Chevy Chase) began constructing lavish mansions as well. Nevada Senator William Stewart built a Second Empire mansion on the empty circle where PNC Bank (formerly Riggs) now stands. "Stewart's Folly," called such because it looked out of place in the neighborhood, was designed by architect Adolph Cluss. The structure was also called "Stewart's Castle" because of its five-story entrance tower and carriage porch. It was a financial drain, and Stewart eventually sold to Senator William Clark who tore it down in 1901. In 1872, the British government purchased land at Connecticut Avenue at N Street and built another ornate Second Empire building with an entrance under a porte cochere. It was razed in 1931 when the British Embassy moved west on Massachusetts Avenue. These two buildings were surrounded by vacant lots and shanties which were slowly replaced with more modest brick and frame buildings. By 1880 Dupont Circle's 3,000 plus population consisted not only of statesmen, government officials and professionals but also tradesmen, domestics, and laborers, with half of the population black. Immigrants from Ireland, Germany, and Great Britain comprised about ten percent of the population. By 1885, the area then known as the "West End," was being promoted as a fashionable neighborhood. Mansions filled the Circle and spread onto Massachusetts and New Hampshire Avenues. Rowhouses in brick and stone filled in the grid streets. Speculators charged $4,000-$8,000 for Queen Anne style homes with their gables and bay windows. Henry A. Willard was an early speculator who created Willard Street to bisect T, U, 17th and 18th Streets and then subdivided the land. More embassies were established in the neighborhood. The racial mix of the neighborhood changed so that the white population was in the majority again, but before World War I black professionals moved into the northeastern portion of Dupont Circle. "Strivers' Section" was the home of many early African-American leaders including Frederick Douglass as well as black laborers and servants. The black and white communities did not mix, each forming their own citizens association -- the white Dupont Circle Citizens' Association in 1922 and the black Midway Civic Association in 1939. Through the 1920s and 1940s many of the mansions were destroyed and a number are now used for other purposes. The Leiter mansion, known for its elitist "Dancing Class" became a federal office building during World War II, was sold in 1947 and was replaced with Hotel Dupont Plaza. The Heurich mansion houses the Historical Society of Washington. The Weeks House became the Women's National Democratic Club, the Scott-Throp House is now the Church of Scientology, the Walsh-McLean House is the Indonesian Embassy, and the Boss Shepherd House was torn down for commercial development on K Street. The Circle itself had a significant impact on the neighborhood. First called Pacific Circle, it was named after Civil War hero Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont. The original statue of the Admiral which was erected in 1884 was replaced in 1921 by the fountain designed by Daniel Chester French and Henry Bacon who also designed the Lincoln Memorial. A streetcar underpass to relieve congestion on the Circle that was begun in 1947 was closed by 1961 as the streetcars were replaced with buses. The underpass was used by cars, closed years later, was opened as a shopping/restaurant area, which was also closed. In the 1960s and 70s the park became known as a staging ground for counterculture and activist movements and Vietnam anti-war demonstrations. In 1978 and 1985, Dupont Circle and Strivers Section, respectively, were designated historic districts.
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