Washington and Georgetown Railroad Car House
- Architect
- Walter C. Root
- Style
- Romanesque Revival
- City
- Washington, DC
- Collection
- romanesque revival
Also called the Navy Yard Car Barn or the Blue Castle, this Romanesque Revival car house at 770 M Street SE was designed by Walter C. Root in 1891 for the Washington and Georgetown Railroad, one of four facilities Root built for the company's 1890s cable car expansion. It turned around cars at the Navy Yard terminus of the line running up 8th Street to Pennsylvania Avenue and on to Georgetown.
the building
Castle towers on the southeast face. The building's most distinctive feature is its southeast facade, where towers mimicking a medieval castle give the car barn its "Blue Castle" nickname. A plainer one-story addition, built in 1909 to fill the western half of the block, echoes the original design without its ornament.
From cable cars to storage. Capital Traction Company acquired the railway in 1895. After fire destroyed the main powerhouse in 1897, cable cars were replaced with electric traction, and the barn shifted to primarily storage use as it was expanded.
the style
Root's Romanesque Revival design gave a working car barn the turreted silhouette of a medieval fortress, decoration unusual for a purely functional railway building.
More on Romanesque Revivalthe architect
Walter C. Root designed this car house as one of four facilities for the Washington and Georgetown Railroad's cable car network in the 1890s.
significance
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
nearby
- Marine Barracks and Band Hall
- Latrobe Gate
- Washington Navy Yard, Tingey House (Commandant's House)
- Christ Church
- Old Naval Hospital (Temporary Home for Veterans of All Wars)
- Washington Navy Yard