Petworth Neighborhood Library

Architect: Nathan C. Wyeth
Year: 1939
Style: Colonial Revival
City: Washington, DC

Petworth residents lobbied for a decade for a neighborhood library after streetcar service reached the area, a campaign pressed in a 1927 letter from resident Gertrude Norcross to The Washington Post. Congress eventually provided $180,000, and construction began in December 1937 on a site at 4200 Kansas Avenue NW chosen to serve Theodore Roosevelt High School, MacFarland Middle School, and the surrounding elementary schools.

the building

Sited for students. The library's location near Theodore Roosevelt High School and MacFarland Middle School was chosen deliberately, so the building could serve both schools plus eight elementary and parochial schools within easy walking distance.

the style

The library was designed by Nathan C. Wyeth in the Georgian Revival style.

the architect

Nathan C. Wyeth served as a municipal architect for Washington, D.C., and designed the Petworth Neighborhood Library in that capacity.

significance

Listed on both the National Register of Historic Places and the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites.

nearby

Park View School 0.6 mi · Gothic Revival · 1916
President Lincoln's Cottage at the Soldiers' Home 0.8 mi · 2000
St. Paul's Episcopal Church 0.8 mi · Georgian · 1775
Tivoli Theatre 0.9 mi · Renaissance Revival
Blanche Kelso Bruce Elementary School 0.9 mi · Renaissance Revival · 1916
Kelsey Temple Church of God in Christ 0.9 mi · Neoclassical

All 315 buildings in Washington, DC