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ArchDC Summer 2017.qxp_Summer 2017 5/24/17 10:52 AM Page 53

Detail view of the exterior ornament over the
main entry. Note the four hand-held bells
believed to be a tribute to the four women in
the family that built the house.
Courtesy of Wiebenson
& Dorman Architects PC

View from the main living room into the entry hall, with long bench that can serve as supplemental seating for large dinner parties.

followed months or years of evaluations and musings between the Project: House of Four Bells,
architect and his clients. At one point, Dorman produced three
Washington, DC
different renovation plans, each emphasizing a different functional
aspect. The problem was an overabundance of good options, Architects: Wiebenson & Dorman Architects PC
explained the husband of the client couple, and the different plans Structural Engineers: JGK Structural Engineers
helped crystallize priorities. Landscape Architects: DC Gardens
Contractor: JV Improvements
The house, on Rhode Island Avenue, one of the spoke streets
coming off of Logan Circle, was designed by the estimable Glenn
converted to apartments, and the basic layout saw little change.
Brown, FAIA, founder of the DC Chapter of the American Institute
Research suggests that in the 1960s one of the occupants ran a
of Architects. The historical record suggests that Brown’s client,
community dentist’s office out of some of the rooms. It is speculated
John Ewans, may have died before the house was completed, and
that this spared the house during the 1968 riots, during which many
his widow and daughters lived there for only a few years. Starting
row houses on the block were burned or looted. In the 1970s, when
in 1894 and lasting over 50 years, two generations of the prominent
abandoned row houses on the block when for $30,000 to $50,000
Trimble family made it their home. Their parties, including at least
each in government tax sales, a preservation-minded owner did
one “cotillion,” were fixtures of the society pages. At some point,
substantial stabilization work, but serious modernization did not
probably in the 1940s, the Trimble heirs started renting out the
happen until the 21st century.
house—or rooms in it—and it was eventually sold to a succession
Dorman’s clients regularly host dinners with up to 30 guests,
of owners. Unlike the solid majority of once-grand houses in the
so, in addition to more general analysis, Dorman specifically
area, however, not only was it never abandoned, but it was never
explored the dining capacity of different houses. None, of course,
HOUSE OF FOUR BELLS 53