Further Info. about the Unrecognizable Block

The Walker Estate Building, 1823 Washington Avenue - 1899-1970s

Further study of the Washington Avenue photograph in my last post has revealed that not everything in the photo is gone... just most of it. The large loft building in the right portion of the photo is in fact the King Bee Lofts located at 17th and Washington. The building is in use today as residential lofts, but the pedimented terra cotta entrances have been removed. I discovered this after Larry Giles of the Building Arts Foundation sent me the photo above of the Walker Estate Building, which was located at 1823 Washington. According to Larry, the Walker Estate Building, which was faced with grey speckled terra cotta was demolished in the mid-1970s. More photos of the salvaged terra cotta ornament can be seen here.


After studying a 1909 Sanborn Map, a portion of which is shown above, I realized that there were too many buildings in the photo to be on one block, and that the photo actually shows the blocks of Washington from 17th to 19th Streets and beyond. The Walker Estate Building is the building with the photo below with the panted sign: "FABRICIUS". The photograph was likely taken from The White House, an eight story white terra cotta faced building that once occupied the full block of the south side of Washington between 16th and 17th Streets. The building was demolished in 1975 for surface parking, and remains so today. For a vintage postcard view, click here and scroll down past Ely Walker.