The Mendota: The First Apartment Building in Kalorama Triangle
In 1901, real estate developer George Truesdell sold a plot of land on which the greenhouse of his large Managasset estate had once stood at the southwest corner of Kalorama Road and Twentieth Street to the Iowa Apartment House Company. On this lot, the first apartment building in Kalorama Triangle, the Mendota, a Sioux Indian word meaning “mouth of the river,” was constructed at 2220 Twentieth Street and opened in 1902.
The Mendota was the first of three apartment buildings designed by James G. Hill, the others being Stoneleigh Court and the Ontario. Hill also designed the twin townhouses at 2012-14 Kalorama Road in 1908 for the Iowa Apartment Company as well.
When completed, the Mendota had forty-nine apartments: twenty-three one-bedrooms, twelve two-bedrooms, seven three-bedrooms and seven four-bedrooms. For those who chose not to cook or did not have their domestic staff with them, the top floor featured a public dining room. The ground f…
