Historic homes in Washington DC area embrace a wealth of significant architectural styles

History is practically everywhere you look in the Washington area. Pick just about any neighborhood, and youll see a plethora of historically significant architectural styles in the housing stock from Queen Anne turrets and Beaux-Arts staircases to Arts and Crafts porches and Mid-Century Modern skylights.

Take a stroll through Georgetown and youll see Federal mansions, such as Evermay, and Cookes Row, an exa mple of the Italianate style most noted for its elaborate doorways, flat roofs and overhanging eaves.

Drive through Alexandria and youll see examples of Greek Revivals, with their bold columns, in structures such as the Athenaeum, the peach-hued home of the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association, and the Lyceum, the citys history museum.

Or check out the Brice House and the Hammond House, both in Annapolis, examples of the Georgian style noted for distinctive paneled front doors with decorative crowns and pilasters on the side.

There is a wealth of styles, says Patrick Andrus, a historian with the National Register of Historic Places. In the late-19th and early-20th centuries, D.C. was very cosmopolitan, very receptive to architectural styles. ... D.C. adopted everything that was available.

Many of those architectural gems still stand, largely because of the preservation movement.

Preservation efforts by homeowners, historians and groups Cultural Tourism D.C., the D.C. Preservation League, Preservation Maryland, Preservation Virginia and the Capitol Hill Restoration Society, just to name a few have been extensive.

More than 90,000 properties (most of them residential) are on Marylands registry, according to state officials. In Virginia, there are more than 41,000 houses listed as historic, most of them in historid districts, says Marc C. Wagner, designation manager at the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

To date, more than 25,000 D.C. buildings are in a historic district, says Steve Callcott, deputy preservation officer in the citys Historic Preservation Office.

Says Andrus: Its a rich environment for historic preservation.

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Historic homes in Washington DC area embrace a wealth of significant architectural styles