The Seven Buildings: Some of Washington DC’s Earliest Townhouses
Now Just an Historic Billboard
The "Seven Buildings" as they were known, were a row of seven, two-story, Federal-style brick houses with English basements constructed on the northwest corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 19th Street, NW in 1796. While once proud examples of some of the earliest and most fashionable residences in Washington, only the facades of two remain today, incorporated into the front of Mexican Embassy building.
On December 24, 1793, the real estate syndicate of James Greenleaf and Robert Morris purchased 6,000 lots from the city commissioners in order to help finance the new government and began marketing the lots for sale and development. Robert Morris was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. He helped George Washington acquire the funds for the Yorktown campaign during the Revolutionary War and was given the moniker “Financier of the American Revolution.” The G…
