The Altamont at 1901 Wyoming Avenue, NW
In 1911, developer George Truesdell started planning to build a new home for himself. That year, he accepted bids for construction of a $100,000 house on the corner of Wyoming and Twentieth Streets, the site of his current home, Managasset. The proposal was for a building of brick and stone finish and steel and concrete construction, three and a half stories in height. But at the same time, the Washington Heights Citizen’s Association was attempting to acquire Managasset and its grounds for use as a public nursery and playgrounds. Neither plan succeeded. Truesdell’s new house was never built on the property, nor did it become a nursery and playgrounds. Managasset was ultimately razed to make way for Truesdell’s new plan for the site, the Altamont Apartments, where he took up residence after his home Managasset was razed.

The Altamont. Library of Congress.
The Altamont was named after the Truesdells’ 1,500-acre summer home, a converted barn near Deep Creek Lake, Maryland. Deep Creek was a fashionable summer resort for many years where President Cleveland took his bride for their honeymoon. Truesdell’s home boasted a view over the tops of the Allegheny Mountains and was the source of the Altamont Spring water, which he owned. The Truesdells spent every summer at their home near Deep Creek Lake, and in later years, they began to occupy Managasset only rarely in the winter months, preferring their other home near his other subdivision, Eckington, in Northeast Washington, D.C.
The Altamont was designed by architect Arthur B. Heaton in the very popular Mission Revival style

The Highland Apartment Building at 1914 Connecticut Avenue, now the
Churchill Hotel, was also designed by architect Arthur B. Heaton.
Author's collection.
and was completed in 1916. Heaton designed twenty-eight apartment buildings between 1900 and 1940, including the Highland apartment building at 1914 Connecticut Avenue in 1902. Heaton served as the first supervising architect on the construction of the Washington Cathedral between 1908 and 1928.
When it opened, the Altamont contained twenty-seven apartments: four efficiencies, fourteen one-bedroom, three two-bedroom and six four-bedroom apartments. The top of the building provided a complete escape from the streets below, with two summer pavilions on the roof and a dining room. The basement contained a billiard room, a barbershop, a beauty parlor, a servants’ dining room and a laundry room. The Altamont was converted to a co-op in 1949.
In planning both the Mendota and the Altamont, Truesdell provided commercial services for the occupants. The Mendota’s drugstore and doctor’s office, and the Altamont’s barbershop and beauty parlor, teamed with the Mendota Market (now a 7-11), provided a range of services and food items to residents of the Mendota and the Altamont. The owner of the Mendota Market was well aware of the affluence of his local customers, and in 1918, an unfair food order was issued by the city’s food administrator against its owner, W. B. Krantz, prohibiting all licensed food distributors from engaging in any business with him.
Posting adapted from the author's book Kalorama Triangle: The History of a Capital Neighborhood.