In the mid-1890's, Washington's street grid was extended beyond the borders defined by Pierre L'Enfant's original plan. Boundary Street, about three blocks to the left of this image, was renamed Florida Av and the newly absorbed land was platted for development. Harry Wardman, an English immigrant who had worked his way up in the construction trades to become a builder himself, worked with architect Nicholas Grimm to fill this part of town with brick row houses, both small "two-flat" units and larger (and more profitable) buildings, like these, all of which were built with the distinctive facade seen here: a projecting multi-story window bay, often topped with a conical or polygonal roof. And sometimes with additional flourishes, like the Moorish archways surrounding some of these front doors, or on the other side of the street, ornate carvings in limestone trim. These whimsical designs still unify the neighborhoods in this part of town more than a century later. (Historical information from “Housing Washington,” ed. Richard Longstreth, 2010.)