Hampshire Garden Apartment Buildings are historic structures located in the Brightwood Park

Brightwood Park

Brightwood Park is a small neighborhood in Northwest Washington, D.C. in the USA. The neighborhood is bounded by Georgia Avenue NW to the west, Missouri Avenue NW to the northeast and Kennedy Street NW to the south...

 neighborhood in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

  They were listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 in 1994.

History

The buildings of the Hampshire Garden Apartments compose the first fully developed garden apartment complex in the city, although only part of it was built. The initial plan was for the complex to have 2,500 units, but the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

 brought construction to an end in 1929. The complex was built as middle-class housing and was an early example of cooperative ownership.

The nine buildings occupy an entire block and surround an oval shaped common lawn. They are all two-stories tall and follow a cross-shaped plan. Decorative elements in the Tudor revival style include half timbering

Timber framing

Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...

, crenellated towers

Battlement

A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet , in which portions have been cut out at intervals to allow the discharge of arrows or other missiles. These cut-out portions form crenels...

and entrances trimmed in carved stone. The exteriors of the buildings were designed by James E. Cooper and George T. Santmyers designed the interiors. Parks and Baxter served as the landscape architects.