Polychrome Historic District

The Polychrome Historic District is a residential area with five houses built between 1934 and 1935 from prefabricated concrete panels featuring colored aggregate. The buildings blend craftsmanship with mass production techniques, showing how creatively architects could build at that time.

Architect John Joseph Earley created this district in the 1930s as an experiment with new construction methods to produce affordable housing. The prefabricated panels were an innovation designed to save time and reduce costs.

The district shows how residents encountered a fresh building style in the 1930s, where colorful concrete panels defined the homes. These bright surfaces were quite novel at the time and turned each residence into a small work of art.

The houses line two streets and can be viewed from public sidewalks, allowing visitors to explore without needing access to private properties. It works best to walk slowly past the homes and take time to observe the colored surfaces and details of each residence.

Each panel consists of thin concrete with colored aggregate that resembles mosaics, giving every house its own distinctive appearance. Looking more closely, you notice that no pattern is exactly the same.

Location: Montgomery County

Inception: 1934

Architects: John Joseph Earley

Architectural style: Art Deco architecture

Made from material: concrete

GPS coordinates: 39.01810,-77.01533

Latest update: December 12, 2025 16:40