Location | About Brookland | History of 400 Evarts | Before and After Photos

Location:
The Ilora is conveniently located just a few blocks from the Rhode Island Avenue Metro Station, a brand-new shopping center featuring a Giant grocery store and Home Depot and just steps from Trinity College and Catholic University. Also very close to shops and restaurants of Brookland's Historic Main Street district.  With many projects in the pipeline, this convenient and charming neighborhood is a perfect place to invest!

About Brookland:
The area gets its name from the Colonel Jehiel Brooks, who settled on a 150-acre farm in the early 19th century, and who's elegant Greek Revival mansion from 1840 still stands at 901 Newton Street, N.E . In 1887 Catholic University was established near the Brooks Mansion and soon developers subdivided the old farm and built what was then considered a suburb. The original houses were built in a variety of architectural styles, including Victorian, Colonial Revival and Craftsman.

Brookland soon became home to the largest cluster of Catholic institutions to be found outside of Rome itself. In addition the Catholic University, the only university in the United States under the direct patronage of the Pope, institutions include the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the largest Catholic church in the United States, Franciscan Monastery with its Byzantine- style Memorial Church of the Holy Land, and at least 60 Catholic colleges, schools, houses of study, convents, and seminaries.

Some of Brookland's distinguished residents included Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, author of The Yearling; diplomat and Nobel Prize winner Ralph Bunch; Robert Weaver, the first black cabinet member (head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development under President Kennedy); poet and educator Sterling Brown; and singer Pearl Bailey.

Today the community is often referred to as "a small town in town" and is graced with a small but thriving business community centered around its Main Street on 12th Street. Neighborhood restaurants include Col. Brooks Tavern, Island Jim's, and Kelly's Ellis Island as well as a number of Chinese, Jamaican, and Italian/Pizza carry out places. Cafe Sureia is the popular neighborhood coffee shop on 12th St.  Grocery stores include the Giant, Safeway and a brand new Yes Organic market. Brookland retail includes art galleries, home furnishings, hardware and other services. 

History of 400 Evarts:
One of thirteen Washington projects designed by architect Sam Novak, the Ilora Apartment Building at 400 Evarts Street, NE was constructed by K.O.L. Construction Corporation in 1940. Positioned at the corner of 4th and Evarts Streets, close to Trinity University and the Catholic University of America, the Ilora is part of the Edgewood neighborhood, which borders the Brookland area of Northeast DC. Edgewood takes its name from the 50-acre estate overlooking Glenwood Cemetery that Salmon P. Chase, Governor and U.S. Senator from Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury under Abraham Lincoln, and Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court between 1864 and 1873, and his daughter Kate Chase Sprague, who managed her father's political campaigns, established during the second half of the 19th century. The Chases built their mansion just one block north of where the Ilora stands.

The first building to be constructed on the site was likely a frame structure that was built circa 1922 and demolished by 1940 to make way for the 21-unit Ilora. Built of concrete block with a brick veneer for an estimated $60,000, the Ilora is a traditional apartment building that is enlivened by Art Deco accents. It stands three stories tall with an English basement and features paired, six-over-six, wood sash windows. Geometric motifs that are characteristic of the Art Deco style appear in the diamond-shaped and sunburst panels on the street-side elevations and in the doorways, which are framed by progressively-recessed concrete bands.

The columns of angled brick that adorn the edges of the building and the two projecting towers on the Evarts Street side reflect the Art Deco style's emphasis on verticality and abstract geometric patterns. The triangular pediments at the roofline also serve to highlight the vertical lines of the building. The street-side elevations display good examples of decorative brickwork, including the use of colored, textured bricks and rows of patterned brick. In 2007, the Menkiti Group developed the Ilora to create 21 condominium apartments for those who serve the DC community.

BEFORE

AFTER