Grant Road Historic District, historic district in Washington, D.C., United States
The Grant Road Historic District is a neighborhood in Washington, D.C., featuring a narrow, winding street section that has remained largely unchanged for over a century. The area includes about 13 historic buildings dating from 1860 to 1931, including small two-story homes in I-House style, Italianate boxes, and folk houses with gabled roofs, plus a notable 1887 commercial structure on Wisconsin Avenue that once housed a general store and post office.
The district emerged in the 1860s after Fort Reno was built nearby during the Civil War, bringing military activity to the area. After the war, Grant Road developed into a residential street, with increased house building in the late 1800s, especially after a streetcar line opened along Wisconsin Avenue in 1890, connecting the area to downtown.
Grant Road takes its name from General and later President Ulysses S. Grant, a key leader during the Civil War. The street evolved after the war into a residential area for working-class families, reflecting how this rural settlement gradually transformed into a neighborhood.
The district is located in the Tenleytown neighborhood and can be explored on foot by walking along Grant Road between Wisconsin Avenue and Brandywine Street. This short, quiet walk best reveals the original street and old houses, with flat terrain that remains easy to navigate.
A notable aspect of the district is that President Theodore Roosevelt was known to ride horseback through the neighborhood, visiting friends or going to nearby hunting lodges. This personal connection to an American president highlights the area's role as a quiet rural refuge near the city.
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