Edwin Horatio Fowler

~ The Edwin Horatio Fowler House ~

1126 East Capitol Street, NE Washington, DC

Located within the Capitol Hill Historic District in the District of Columbia, 1126 East Capitol Street, NE (henceforth referred to as the Fowler House) occupies lot 67 of square 988 (Fig. 1).  Privately-owned, the Fowler House sits at the corner of 12^th Street and East Capitol Street and faces south into Lincoln Park.  After designing six residences on the north side of Lincoln Park, Edwin H. Fowler applied for a building permit on March 28, 1892 (permit number 1805) to construct 1126 East Capitol Street, NE at an estimated cost of $12,000.  Fowler served as both owner and architect on the project, with William Thompson as builder.  At 20 feet x 45 feet, the three story (plus cellar) brick and stone house would be one of Fowler’s largest projects and would also be his own residence until his death 1904.  Fowler also constructed the house next door, 1124 East Capitol Street, NE (Fig. 2), after applying for a permit on June 29, 1892 (permit number 2839).  Also rather large in size at 19 feet x 40 feet, the cost of construction for 1124 was $6,800, still a considerable sum at the time.  Though of like materials and overall design to the Fowler House, 1124 is dissimilar in its use of a square entryway surrounded by a continuous band of carved stone, groupings of Palladian columns between windows on the bay, and a square (rather than round) bay on the front of the house.

Although predominantly Richardsonian Romanesque in style, the Fowler House also includes elements that were also found in the Arts and Crafts style such as the hip-roof dormers with carved wooden trim that enclose windows on the third story.[1]  Popular between 1880 and 1900 and based on the architecture of Henry Hobson Richardson, the Richardsonian Romanesque style presented a distinctly American style that combined the massing and spatial planning lessons of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts with French Romanesque elements.[2]  More creative than the uninspired copying that plagued many revival styles, Richardson’s freer design utilized the rounded arches common to Romanesque Revival structures but was more notably characterized by deep recessed entryways and windows below exaggerated arches, organic motifs carved in limestone and brownstone, cylindrical towers with conical roofs, squat columns, and heavy, horizontal massing of rough-cut stonework at the structure’s base to imply weight.[3]  The Fowler House employs many of these elements and utilizes others that are suggestive of the Richardsonian Romanesque style.

The stone front steps of the Fowler House feature carvings in a leaf motif (Fig. 3) and lead to an arch surround on the entryway that is accented by a line of intricately carved stone in a leaf motif above the arch and carved stone cushion capitals on either side (Fig. 4).  The house number is carved into the stone to the right of the door.  The front and corner of the first story of the house feature a rusticated base of rough-cut squared stone that grounds the property and provides mass when viewed from the entry point on East Capitol Street.  The remainder of the house is comprised of smooth-faced red brick.

Further in keeping with the Richardsonian elements, the Fowler House is markedly asymmetrical.  A round bay on the front culminates in a third floor balcony with a recessed entry under an arched overhang.  The balcony’s gabled roofline is topped by a decorative finial.  This round bay meets a hybrid corner bay that transitions from round to softened square lines as it curves along the side of the house (Fig. 5).  The joining of the two bays hints at a Richardsonian corner tower, the angular gabled roof of the balcony and the turreted dormer above the hybrid bay together playfully suggesting Richardson’s traditional conical-roofed tower.  Towards the rear of the property, an additional square bay with softened edges culminates in another third floor balcony, this time exposed with no overhang but again featuring a gabled roofline and ornamental finial.

The first floor features a walk-out porch of wooden spindles and rails, along with three windows overlooking the side yard beyond (Fig. 6).  The door to the porch is placed perpendicularly in the side of the rear bay, mostly hidden from view.  Windows on the front of the house and around the corner bay are topped with stone lintels, while the middle and rear windows feature headers of decorative brick that are commonly found on Capitol Hill row houses but still imply the Romanesque arch.  Three chimneys are visible from the street, the middle of which has decorative brick inlay on the face.

Horizontal massing is further suggested by the use of bands of cornice work.  A decorative cornice separates the second and third story and features stone inlay on the front and corner bay topped by denticulated moulding and a line of carved stonework throughout.  Two bands of brick run through the second floor window line across the entire front and side of the structure.  On the front and corner of the property, a band of stonework, in this employment smooth and underpinned by a line of carved stonework, separates the first and second floors while a supplementary line of stonework tops the first floor stone-facing to add definition.

Fowler’s design and material choices were certainly refined and indicative of a high level of craftsmanship and financial investment, but they were not entirely novel.  The adoption of the Richardsonian Romanesque style in the majority of his designs is not surprising given the style’s popularity throughout the United States and its proliferation in houses across Capitol Hill during Fowler’s period of building, along with the employ of similar elements of the Romanesque Revival style such as the arch.  Fowler’s choice of brick in combination with stone reflects the prevalent use of brick as a building material across Capitol Hill (and throughout the city) beginning in 1877 when wooden construction was prohibited in Washington for fire safety reasons.  Fowler’s prevalent inclusion of bays on his Capitol Hill designs was also a sign of the times as Washington’s building regulations allowed bays, porches and corner towers to enter public space with the 1871 Projection Act.  Together, these two regulatory changes would produce the quintessential 1880’s-1890’s brick bay front house on Capitol Hill.

Changes to the Fowler House have been minimal, and the home consequently retains a great deal of integrity.  Fowler himself replaced a shed in 1902,[4] and the porch floor and back fence and shed were repaired in 1920.[5]  A stand-alone garage was added in 1924.[6]  The only structural change that affected the integrity of the house was a partial third-story addition in 1905.[7]  However, the addition’s design was in keeping with the existing style of the house and is visible only from the side of the property (Fig. 7).  The interior of the home retains the original staircase and many early doors, flooring materials and trim mouldings, while modern renovations have understandably been made in several rooms such as the kitchen, bathrooms and basement living space.  The Fowler House is in excellent condition and is a stunning example of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture on Capitol Hill.

Narrative Statement of Significance

The Fowler Years

After relocating from New Hampshire to the District Of Columbia at roughly 23 years of age, Edwin H. Fowler became employed as a draftsman[8] of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (henceforth referred to as USC&GS) on July 9, 1879.[9]  Born on October 20, 1856 in South Newberry, New Hampshire, Fowler had graduated from the Chandler Scientific Department of Dartmouth College in 1878.[10]  Initially a separate school under the auspices of Dartmouth rather than an integrated department, the Chandler School was established in 1851 with a $50,000 donation from the estate of wealthy New Hampshire native Abiel Chandler.[11]  Admissions standards for the Chandler School were comparatively lower than those of the College until 1880 (after Fowler’s graduation) as Chandler’s will had specified that the scientific school impose, “…(N)o entrance requirements in excess of the subjects taught in the common schools of New England.”[12]  The Chandler School was similar to the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale and the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard, also established in the mid-nineteenth century, in its focus on engineering and other, “…(P)ractical and useful arts of life.”[13]

Fowler first appears in the city directory of Washington in 1881, employed as a “draftsman” and living at 7 Grant Place, NW.  In 1882, the city directory also began including Fowler’s place of employment as USC&GS.  USC&GS was located at the corner of Independence Avenue and South Capitol Street (now the site of the Longworth House Office Building) as marked on plats.  As noted on census records, Fowler married his wife, 26-year-old Martha, in 1883.  Also a native of New Hampshire, Martha C. Fowler was born in August of 1857.  By 1883, the newlywed Fowlers were listed in the city directory as having taken up residence at 207 A Street, NE on Capitol Hill, just a few blocks from USC&GS.

Authorized by Congress in 1807, the Coast Survey (as it was first known) employed surveyors, cartographers, mathematicians and sailors to map the coastlines of the United States.  The Coast Survey was the first governmental agency to gather, process and disseminate to the public geographic information, playing a leading role in the founding of the Smithsonian Institution and the National Academy of Sciences and establishing the pursuit of sound science as a democratic responsibility.[14]  By the middle of the nineteenth century, the Coast Survey was principally responsible for determining sea depths (known as hydrography), producing maps of coastlines, predicting tides and currents, using geodetics to measure the gravitational and magnetic field of the Earth, and developing the lighthouse system.[15]

Work of the Coast Survey expanded even more with the acquisition of Alaska and an 1871 law requiring that the interior of the country also be mapped.  During Fowler’s tenure at USC&GS, scope increased again when the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico were ceded to the United States in 1898 following the Spanish-American War, likely providing a significant elevation in workload.  Involved in international mapping by the mid-twentieth century, the work of USC&GS was rolled into the new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the 1970’s.[16]

Fowler kept prominent company in his fellow draftsmen in the Drawing Division of USC&GS.  Entering the division with Fowler in 1879 and listed in the 1880 annual report as assisting with the lettering and inking of topographical sheets was Robert E. Peary.[17]  Peary would soon depart the Drawing Division to enter the United States Navy as a civil engineer, later leading the exploratory team that first set foot on the North Pole in 1909 and achieving the rank of rear Admiral of the Navy at the direction of Congress in 1911.[18]  Also serving as draftsmen in the Drawing Division were brothers Henry and Adolph Lindenkohl, immigrants from Germany.  Adolph Lindenkohl would be regarded as highly educated on physical geography, oceanography and deep sea temperatures and densities when he passed away in 1904 while Senior Draftsman.[19]  His brother, Henry, would be recognized for a productive capacity as cartographer, engraver and lithographer that was among the most remarkable across map-producing organizations upon his death in 1920.[20]

By examining the annual reports of the Superintendent of USC&GS for the years of 1880 to 1904, it is apparent that Fowler’s duties and talent increased steadily.  After a mere mention alongside Peary for lettering and inking in 1880, Fowler was transferred to the newly created Topography Division in 1881, only to return to the Drawing Division in 1883 for further inking duties.  By 1884, Fowler had inked eleven sheets but was also preparing a drawing of the Delaware Breakwater.  By the next year, he was producing topography for the Savannah River and had completed a chart of Gray’s Harbor.  In 1886, Fowler produced engravings of Perquinan’s River, Edenton and Plymouth.  It is clear that his workload increased by 1887 as he is noted as drawing coastal charts for numerous sites such as Boston Bay, the Long Island Sound, Seal Island, and a portion of Cape Hatteras and creating harbor charts for Fox Island, the New York Bay and Harbor and Block Island.

Fowler’s 1904 obituary notes that he was instrumental in beautifying Lincoln Park, though exact details on his efforts are not mentioned.  Examination of improvements made to the park during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when Fowler was living on Capitol Hill, provide clues of his involvement.  Although Lincoln Park was included as green space in L’Enfant’s plan for the city of Washington, the park was initially a dumping ground before hosting the site of Lincoln Hospital (which inspired the naming of the park as Lincoln Square by Congress in 1867).[21]  Sculptor Thomas Ball was commissioned to create a statue of Lincoln for the park (Fig. 8), and the monument of Lincoln posed above a slave on bended knee was dedicated on April 14, 1876 with a parade through Washington and a speech in Lincoln Park by Frederick Douglass.[22]

Lincoln Park became the sole monument to Lincoln in Washington (and therefore a tourist attraction) as the formal Lincoln Memorial was yet to be built.  Gas lamps and curved walkways were added in 1874, in addition to bathroom facilities and numerous plantings.[23]  In 1884, two fountains were added on the north and south ends of the park close to the 12^th Street axis, and a large concrete walkway was added from East Capitol Street to the statue in 1894.[24]  Further park enhancements occurred after Fowler’s death, so it seems likely that he was involved in either the fountain or walkway improvements in the 1880’s and 1890’s or perhaps both.

With his responsibilities growing, Fowler’s line of work was likely proving more lucrative.  In the 1887 city directory, the Fowlers were listed at 1100 A Street, NE,[25] located across the street from Lincoln Park and indicative of an ongoing attachment to this neighborhood that would soon dictate the evolution of Edwin Fowler’s upcoming architectural career.  As Fowler continued to make strides at USC&GS by day, drafting charts for such well-known coastal stretches as San Diego to Santa Monica and Tampa Bay to Key West in 1888, he began moonlighting as an architect-for-hire and speculative builder (Table 1 lists Fowler’s building history for reference).  The roots of Fowler’s abilities as an architect are undefined.  Fowler was never recorded as a member of the American Institute of Architects according to their archival staff, and no evidence was found to suggest that he sought formal architectural schooling.  The drawing talent that would lead him to a prominent career in mapping, coupled with the engineering skills gained at Dartmouth, likely made him a skilled amateur architect.

That Fowler’s building career concentrated principally around Lincoln Park is not surprising.  As noted earlier, the park was a renowned site in Washington and had received improvements that surely created a green space of leisure and beauty for residents to enjoy.  Additionally, the blocks east of 11^th Street (around and beyond the park) were ripe for development, and large-scale developers such as Charles Gessford and William Yost were pushing eastward from the blocks close to the Capitol with rows of brick bay front houses.[26]  The Lincoln Park neighborhood also became a convenient place to live with the addition of the 1896 East Capitol Street Car Barn at 14^th Street and the extension of the Metropolitan Railroad Company’s streetcar lines around and past the park after horse-drawn cars were replaced with the electric conduit system beginning in 1898.[27]

A review of the 1887 plat shows a dense concentration of housing in the blocks close to the Capitol with medium concentration extending eastward to 11^th Street.  At that dividing line, however, development drops precipitously, with dotted houses around the park and square after square of empty land in the blocks beyond.  Beginning with the Civil Service Act of 1883 to ensure government workers’ wages and job security, Capitol Hill began to grow thanks to a booming federal workforce eager to buy houses and city infrastructure improvements that made urban living more comfortable.[28]  The availability of cheap and undeveloped land around and past the park made speculative building a good investment for government workers such as Fowler who had reliable jobs with good pay, and the further development of squares around and past the park is evident on the 1903 plat.

In 1889, Fowler designed his first house, a speculative property, at 208 11^th Street, NE, two blocks from Lincoln Park and his own home (Fig. 9).  Though not markedly ornate, the house does evidence the Romanesque arched doorway that Fowler would often come to prefer in his more prestigious designs.  Continuing to work in the blocks around the park, Fowler designed 1104 (1889) and 1106 (1891) A Street, NE (now East Capitol Street, NE) in his own block (Fig. 10) before markedly showing his creativity with a seamless bay that appears to undulate from the corner of the structure on 1206 East Capitol Street, NE (Fig. 11) in keeping with the Richardsonian use of circular corner towers.  1104, built as a matching mate to 1100 and 1102, is consistent with the traditional brick bay fronts of Capitol Hill and is devoid of Richardsonian Romanesque elements. 1106, however, employs textured red bricks that are unique amongst Fowler’s designs but also suggestive of the rough-cut stonework of Richardsonian that he would come to prefer.  Fowler would also design 1108 in 1894, again in the Richardsonian Romanesque style.

After designing two speculative properties on Tennessee Avenue in 1891, Fowler set to work on a new house for himself and a next door mate for resale.  At an estimated cost of $12,000 to build, 1126 East Capitol Street, NE would be Fowler’s most expensive project to date and one of the most expensive of his career.  Land was obtained from Stephen Flanagan according to notations on the 1887 plat.  Originally hailing from Philadelphia, Flanagan owned an extensive amount of empty land in the squares surrounding Lincoln Park as evidenced by the 1887 plat.  Flanagan most famously built the row houses of Philadelphia Row on 11^th Street, SE, designed in the Philadelphia architectural style reportedly to please his homesick wife.[29]

By the 1893 city directory, the Fowlers were listed as residents of their new home.  Its mate at 1124 East Capitol Street, NE was estimated at $6,800 to build and was sold to William P. Hepburn according to the next available real estate tax assessment in 1899.  In Hepburn, the Fowlers kept prestigious company next door.  A Representative from Iowa from 1881-1887, Hepburn likely purchased 1124 upon his reelection to Congress in 1893.  The great-grandson of Vermont Representative Matthew Lyon and the grandson of Kentucky Representative Chrittenden Lyon, Hepburn is most noteworthy for the 1906 Hepburn Act to regulate railroads and give the Interstate Commerce Commission the authority to also oversee bridges, ferries and oil pipelines.[30]  Hepburn continued to own 1124 until his death in 1916 according to tax assessments, practicing law in Washington after he failed to win reelection in 1909.[31]  Hepburn died in his home state of Iowa after a long battle with kidney and heart illness,[32] and the house was soon sold by Hepburn’s widow to Isabella Arnold according to the next tax assessment.

Fowler built steadily, one or two houses per year, through the remainder of the 1890’s, producing the spectacular stone residence at 907 East Capitol Street, SE that perfectly captured the element of massing so common to Richardsonian Romanesque (Fig. 12), the towering four-story brick and stone park-facing house at 1103 East Capitol Street, SE (Fig. 13) that used Fowler’s customary carved stonework on the entry steps in an organic motif, and a more conservative brick row house just beyond the park at 1312 North Carolina Avenue, NE.  Fowler designed one of his grandest residences at 16 Tennessee Avenue, NE (now 118 Tennessee Avenue, NE) in 1898 (Fig. 14), including in the design the Palladian columns that he had chosen for 1124 East Capitol Street, NE and an asymmetrical single bay on a double-lot house with off-set front steps.  Fowler also briefly veered from the Lincoln Park corridor to serve as an architect for a home in Northwest Washington in 1896 and as a speculative builder for a residence at 1322 19^th Street, NW in 1898.

Whether Fowler served as speculative owner and architect or as an architect-for-hire, building permits show that he worked repetitively with the same builders to oversee the labor of his projects with only a few exceptions.  The builders most commonly employed by Fowler were William Thompson, George W. Barkman, and George C. Hough, all three of whom began their careers as carpenters.[33]  By using the same supervisors and craftsmen (and often the same floor plans) in repetition, architects and developers could invest minimal time on the job site themselves and order standardized materials even for ornate houses.[34]  Most of Fowler’s projects were sited on Capitol Hill’s grand and wide boulevards – East Capitol Street, Tennessee Avenue, North Carolina Avenue and Maryland Avenue – and were of a fairly grand scale, while large developers dotted the side streets with more modest row houses built in long clusters for the white-collar middle class buyer.[35]

In 1897, Fowler was promoted to Chief Draftsman of USC&GS, a role that took him from laboring cartographer to supervisor of the draftsmen.[36]  The USC&GS annual report for 1899 notes that under Fowler’s supervision, maps and material were supplied to the White House war room.  That same year, Fowler would design another house on Tennessee Avenue along with homes on Massachusetts Avenue and East Capitol Street.  1014 East Capitol Street, NE would be situated next door to another Richardsonian Romanesque house.  The all-stone 1016 East Capitol Street, NE had been built in 1895 and was designed by John Granville Meyers, designer of the Heurich Mansion in Dupont Circle.[37]

In his only non-residential structure, Fowler would also provide the 1899 architectural design for the rebuilt Lane Chapel Church, an African-American Methodist Church at 1401 C Street, NE that still remains in operation (Fig. 15).  Although the reason for the rebuild is unclear, Washington Post articles on the church’s original structure evidence a lively dedication ceremony in 1893[38] and a hymn-filled outdoor tent revival on Fourteenth Street in 1893.[39]  The rebuilt design, likely dictated by financial constraints of the congregation given the somewhat low $8,000 estimate for construction listed the building permit, was not consistent with Fowler’s tradition of Richardsonian Romanesque but did feature arched windows on the second floor and a square corner tower.

One of Fowler’s designs saw tremendous change after his death.  In April of 1900, Fowler was noted as the architect on a single-family three-story plus cellar dwelling for owner Katherine Holt at 1200 East Capitol Street, NE on Lot 20.[40]  The permit authorized a large open porch at the East Capitol Street entry and two bays, one square and one rounded, on 12^th Street.  The home was located just across the street from Fowler’s own residence and evidenced the asymmetrical round and square bays and denticulated mouldings at the cornice that were also included in the Fowler House.  The outline of the house appears in this primary form on the 1904 Sanborn map.  In 1907 (after Fowler’s death), Holt initiated an extensive expansion of the property.

According to 1907 building permits,[41] the structure was extended further up 12^th Street to abut an alley, and it was also extended fully into Lot 19 to front Tennessee Avenue.  Entryways and steps were added on Tennessee Avenue and 12^th Street and steps were added down to the basement level on 12^th Street.  An additional squared bay was added in the 12^th Street addition, along with one on Tennessee Avenue.  The carved stonework used and the design features employed were consistent with Fowler’s plans of 1900, creating a near seamless final product that hides it original form.  When completed, Fowler’s original design had been surrounded on three sides and was listed as the multi-family “Fairfax” building on the 1928 plat.  Although it is not true to Fowler’s design, 1200 East Capitol Street, NE, now condominiums, is one of the jewels of the Lincoln Park corridor (Fig. 16).

At the turn of the century, Fowler was particularly distinguishing himself at USC&GS.  In the 1901 annual report, it is noted that while on a one-month vacation in London and Paris during the summer of 1900, Fowler also researched photo-engraving and the reproduction of topographic charts and drawings in Europe.  Fowler visited with a professor of the College of France to secure letters of introduction that enabled him to visit numerous French mapping agencies in Paris.  In London, Fowler visited publishing houses and the Admiralty Office.  In 1903, Fowler served as the Acting Director of his division for nearly two months during the absence of the chief as noted on the annual report for that year.  As noted in his obituary, Fowler also admirably systemized the work of the Drawing Division while Chief Draftsman, creating a structure of “History Sheets” in a card-catalogue system to streamline the process of preparation, approval and registration of charts.[42]

The Fowler household had also expanded by the turn of the century.  The census record of 1900 notes that Martha C. Fowler never bore children, so it is assumed that the Fowlers remained childless throughout their marriage.  However, the 1900 census also notes that Edwin Fowler’s 68-year-old mother, Mahala J. Fowler, had come to live with her son and daughter-in-law.  Additionally recorded as living at the residence at the time of the census was a 19-year-old African-American servant named Rose Douglass, who hailed from Virginia.

Fowler was an active Washingtonian beyond his prestigious mapping career, architectural achievements and beautification efforts at Lincoln Park.  A member of the New Hampshire Association in Washington, Fowler presented a speech entitled, “A Trip Through New Hampshire After a Twenty-Five Years’ Absence,” at a 1903 meeting.[43]  Fowler was also a founding member of the University Club in 1904, a gentlemen’s association that consisted of alumni from such esteemed institutions as Dartmouth, Yale, the University of Virginia, Princeton, Harvard, Columbia and Cornell.  As the Vice President of the Dartmouth Alumni Association, Fowler represented his alma mater.

A 1904 announcement in the Washington Post lists Fowler as a member of the University Club’s executive committee and describes the desire of the club to, “…(G)ather into one organization a body of educated men and to make it a center for the influences that our universities represent…The needs of such a club in Washington, where the number of college men, especially scientific students, is rapidly increasing, and it is believed, will accelerate the movement to form what New York, Houston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, and many other cities have for a long time possessed.”[44]  In a 1905 article on the club’s first year of success, Secretary of War William Howard Taft is noted as club president.[45]  The University Club flourished through the twentieth century, becoming a retreat for Members of Congress and allowing the membership of women in the 1980’s.[46]  The club remains open today and is located at 1135 16^th Street, NW.

However, Edwin Fowler was unable to take pleasure in the club’s fruition or what would surely have been additional years of architectural contributions to Capitol Hill and further success at USC&GS.  Fowler died at 10:00 a.m. on March 11, 1904 at age forty-seven after a long (but undefined) illness through which he continued to work under great physical and mental pressure.[47]  It is noted in his obituary that, “This devotion to duty, in all probability, contributed to the breakdown that resulted in his death.”[48]  Particularly fitting for a man who so clearly loved the Lincoln Park neighborhood and surely the house that he had designed as his own sanctuary, Fowler died in his own home.  The funeral was held at the Fowler residence at 2:00 p.m. on March 13, 1904, with a pastor from the Church of the Reformation at 212 East Capitol Street, NE presiding.  Edwin Fowler was interred in Tilton, New Hampshire at the former home of his family as noted in the obituary, and Martha Fowler quickly sold the house to John and Mary Farnsworth, whose story continues below.

Fowler’s final designs were interestingly located beyond the Lincoln Park neighborhood.  In 1902, Fowler designed a house at 210 Maryland Avenue, NE, which has since been demolished, in close proximity to the Capitol building.  A grouping of three nondescript brick row houses at 610, 612 and 614 Third Street, NE (Fig. 17), near the railroad tracks that would become the site of Union Station in 1908, are reflective of the more restrained architecture of the surrounding row houses and the end of the Richardsonian Romanesque era.  Fowler’s final building permit in February of 1904 was for a home in Northwest Washington, though it seems unlikely that he personally saw the project to completion given his death one month later.