3523 Porter Street

Cleveland Park
Washington, DC
Single-Family Development

Project Architect: Cunningham + Quill Architects
Project Design: MMg
Completed: Q3 2011

Highlights

Whole house renovation and addition of an underground media/entertainment room. Complete replacement of exterior elements including, siding, windows, gables, porches and all mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems. The new addition houses a new gourmet kitchen, family room on the ground floor and an expansive master bedroom and bath upstairs. Below grade is the new entertainment suite, kitchenette and au pair suite.

The project was started in November 2010, went on the market immediately. Five families seriously considered the purchase and ultimately the property went under contract while under construction three months before delivery at list price.

Murillo Malnati Homes renovated the original home and added a 2-story addition in the rear converting the existing house into a 4,100 SF 5-bedroom, 4.5 bathhome. The rear area wasconverted in order to accommodate a parking pad off the alley and new pavers and landscaping were installed.

Neighborhood

Cleveland Park is a residential neighborhood in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. It is bounded approximately by Rock Creek Park to the east, Wisconsin and Idaho Avenues to the west, Klingle and Woodley Roads to the south, and Rodman and Tilden Streets to the north. Its main commercial corridor lies along Connecticut Avenue, NW, where the eponymous Cleveland Park station of the Washington Metro’s Red Line can be found; another commercial corridor lies along Wisconsin Avenue.

The neighborhood acquired its name after 1886, when President Grover Cleveland purchased a stone farmhouse directly opposite Rosedale and remodeled it into a Queen Anne style summer estate called Oak View or Oak Hill. When Cleveland lost his bid for re-election in 1888, the property was sold, and the Oak View subdivision was platted in 1890.

While the first subdivisions were made in response to the extension of the Georgetown and Tenleytown electric streetcar line along Wisconsin Avenue, the success of the neighborhood was the result of the Rock Creek Railway, built on Connecticut Avenue in 1892. Once Cleveland Park was connected to downtown Washington, the neighborhood’s second phase of development, as a “streetcar suburb” began.

Features