Lenthall Houses: A Moving History

A special guest column by Emma Wiley

Funkstown is happy to present a guest post by Emma Wiley. Emma is a public historian with a special interest in collaborating with communities to utilize their historical and cultural resources. She is the Digital Humanities Content Manager for CT Humanities and researches the history of building relocation in her spare time. Emma received a Bachelor of Arts in history from Vassar College and will graduate from American University with a Master of Arts in history (public history concentration) in May 2025. 

            Around 1800, John Lenthall commissioned two townhouses built side-by-side in the former area of Hamburg (also spelled Hamburgh) in the very new capital city of the United States of America. Now located at the current-day Foggy Bottom neighborhood, Hamburg (also known as Funkstown) was a small unrealized town that became subsumed by the new city of Washington.[1] Early development of Washington was slow and many politicians did not want to stay longer than required, but those who had to be in the city began building homes despite lacking other city amenities.[2] One hundred seventy-eight years later, however, the Lenthall Houses were in the way of the growing city rather than being part of its beginning.

            By the 1970s, George Washington University owned a significant amount of Foggy Bottom, including many older residential homes that the institution used for a variety of needs. According to the National Register of Historic Places nomination form for the Lenthall houses, “George Washington University found that the Lenthall Houses interfered with the most logical layout and the most advantageous use of the property.”[3] Rather than merely demolish the houses, GW chose to relocate them two blocks away because of their “historic value.”[4] 

            But what gave the Lenthall houses their historic value? John Lenthall held some historic status as the architect chosen by Benjamin Latrobe to oversee the construction of the US Capitol building, but he was killed in an accident and never actually lived in either house. One of the properties stayed in the Lenthall family until the early twentieth century while the other property exchanged hands like any other urban residence—neither building housed a particularly famous or influential person.[5]

            To explore the question of historical significance, GW conducted a historical and archaeological study of the houses in preparation of the move. The report’s authors, Thomas Kavanagh and Susan Swasta, state unremarkably that “the property was of no special note in nineteenth century Washington.” The houses benefitted from the simple fact that they managed to remain extant into the late twentieth century, so while potentially not remarkable at the time of their construction, the report claimed they were “the earliest extant houses in the Foggy Bottom area of Northwest Washington.”[6] While not necessarily historically significant because of the people or events they housed, the Lenthall Houses became significant as typical examples of early nineteenth century townhouses.

            On a rainy August 5, 1978, William “Wild Bill” Patram and his team moved the 330 ton buildings a few blocks from their original home at 612 and 614 19th Street NW to 606 and 610 21st Street NW. The preparation beforehand took weeks. According to Patram, “Brother Lenthall didn’t want his building moved,” and the contractors had to do significant work to shore up walls and remove deteriorating sections—not something they had to do for most buildings. It was also the first time Patram encountered a 31 foot deep well in the middle of the basement floor under the house.[7] 

Patram and his team only moved the original parts of the townhouses, not the additions made during the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Even with the additions removed, it was still difficult to fit the buildings down and around the city streets that had grown up around them; in some places, the 37 foot wide structure had to fit through a 38 foot space.[8] Hundreds of spectators lined the route to watch the Lenthall Houses move to their new home.[9]

Building relocation has occurred in Washington for centuries for a variety of reasons—the Lenthall Houses are merely one chapter in a long history. As the Foggy Bottom neighborhood shifted and GW needed the space for different purposes, the Lenthall Houses could have been demolished. To fit the Lenthall Houses in their new space on 19th Street NW, GW demolished one of the other existing rowhouses—to save and move one structure, they destroyed another.[10] By choosing to move rather than demolish the houses when they wanted to redevelop the block, GW affirmed the houses’ contribution to Washington’s history.

Moving buildings around the streets changes how we understand the built histories of blocks, neighborhoods, and the entire city. Single relocation stories can reveal crucial themes such as opportunity, advocacy, displacement, and preservation. To learn more about the history of building relocation in Washington, DC, visit my evolving Building Relocation History Data Set and come to the DC History Conference on April 3-6th, 2025.

[1] Don Alexander Hawkins, “Unbuilt Washington: Thomas Jefferson’s Federal Town,” Washington History 31, no. 1/2 (Fall 2019): 110.

[2] C.M. Harris, “Washington’s “Federal City,” Jefferson’s “Federal Town,”” Washington History 12, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2000): 49.

[3] Suzanne Ganschinietz, “Lenthall Houses,” National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form (U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1972.

[4] Thomas Kavanagh and Susan Swasta, “A Historical and Archaeological Report on The Lenthall Houses, 612-614 19th Street NW Washington, D.C.,” The George Washington University - Lenthall Houses Folder, Box 3 ACC57, Series 3, RG0082, Special Collections, George Washington University.

[5] Maud Burr Morris, “The Lenthall Houses and Their Owners,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C. 31/32 (1930): 33.

[6] Kavanagh and Swasta, “A Historical and Archaeological Report on The Lenthall Houses, 612-614 19th Street NW Washington, D.C.”

[7] William Patram, “The Lenthall Houses: a Moving Story,” (lecture, George Washington University, October 12, 1978), Cassette side 1, minute 23:01.

[8] William Patram, “The Lenthall Houses: a Moving Story,” Cassette side 1, minute 44:00.

[9] Joy Aschenbach and Jenny Murphy, “History Transplanted,” GW Times, (Oct/Nov 1978), The George Washington University - Lenthall Houses Folder, Box 0001, RG0063/010, Special Collections, George Washington University.

[10] William Patram, “The Lenthall Houses: a Moving Story,” Cassette side 2, minute 0:47.