The Kalorama area, which includes the residential neighborhoods of Kalorama Triangle and Sheridan-Kalorama, was primarily rural until the very late 19th century. It lay northwest of the limits of Washington City as planned by L’Enfant, but in the 1880s the area began to be subdivided. Per a Congressional order in 1893, L’Enfant’s design of the city was extended outward to include the remainder of the District. Kalorama, as an existing development at that time, was exempted from the new grid system for streets and remains one of the only parts of D.C. that do not comply with the system.
Historically significant, Kalorama’s housing is a rich palette of gorgeous streets lined with rows of Georgian Revivals, English Arts and Crafts homes, and Mediterranean stuccos. The area has been home to five Presidents, including Woodrow Wilson, William H. Taft, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Warren Harding and Herbert Hoover. It also includes several diplomatic residences as its southern border is the Massachusetts portion of Embassy Row.
Today, the area’s historic homes and well maintained gardens reflect the neighborhood’s distinguished atmosphere and sophisticated past.