History
The area known as Sheridan-Kalorama was patented to John Langsworth by King Charles ll in 1668. It was later sold to Anthony Holmead who in turn willed it to his nephew. In 1791, as L’Enfant laid out his plans for the boundaries of the new federal city, this area was not included. It would remain rural and isolated for nearly a century.
In 1807 Joel Barlow, a Connecticut native and friend of President Thomas Jefferson, bought the property (essentially all of present day Sheridan-Kalorama) for $14,000. Barlow remodeled and expanded an existing house and named it Kalorama, from the Greek for “beautiful view.”
Development north along Connecticut Avenue did not begin until after 1890. Then a new American elite -- tycoons of mining, banking, shipping and railroads - triggered a building boom in Kalorama. Soon bridges were built across Rock Creek Valley on Massachusetts and Connecticut Avenues. New Beaux-arts style apartments began to line Connecticut Avenue and California Street, lending a distinctive architectural cachet to this area. By the 1920s, elites built elegant row houses and enormous mansions along Massachusetts Avenue and interior streets.
During the 1920s and 1930s many of these mansions became embassies, making Sheridan-Kalorama the most international section of the capital city.
The neighborhood was also home to five presidents (before and after their presidencies), three chief justices of the Supreme Court, and numerous other influential persons. History, power and prestige converge here.
