Humanities Council of Washington, D.C.
Researching the History of Your D.C. House
Selected Bibliography of Resources and Guides
Several guides to doing house histories and exploring local history or residential architecture are
available to help researchers. Some general resources are listed below, followed by resources
relevant to the homes, histories, and architectures of Washington, D.C. Many of these materials
are available through the D.C. Public Library, and new or secondhand copies (cheap and
serviceable !) are available from online vendors.
General Resources
Guides to Residential Architecture
Wanting to identify the “style” of a house ? Not sure what to call that slab of stone on which a
window is set, or exactly what a window “sash” is ? These reference works are helpful.
Carley, Rachel. The Visual Dictionary of American Domestic Architecture. Holt Paperbacks,
1997.
Well-illustrated paperback volume includes home interior as well as exterior architectural
details.
McAlester, Virginia and Lee. A Field Guide to American Houses. Knopf, 1984.
A standard reference guide to American residential architecture.
House History Guides
Approaches to doing a house history are similar, no matter where the house lives. While these
general house history guides don’t provide information on the specifics of doing research in
Washington, D.C., they are valuable to researchers in suggesting strategies for teasing out the
story of a house and for linking that story to local history. Some also provide examples of the
sorts of stories this kind of research can produce. Note the offering by local history hero Ruth
Ann Overbeck.
Brooks, Pamela. How to Research Your House: Every Home Tells a Story. How-To Books,
2007.
Green, Betsy J. Discovering the History of Your House and Your Neighborhood. Santa Monica
Press, 2002.
Light, Sally. House Histories: A Guide to Tracing the Genealogy of Your Home. Spencertown,
New York: Golden Hill Press, Inc., 1989.
A guide to evaluating physical evidence as well as the documentary record (and including a
section on how to set-up a house history business).
Morgan, James. If These Walls Had Ears. Grand Central Publishing, 1996.
Humanities Council of Washington, D.C.
Researching the History of Your D.C. House
Selected Bibliography – 2010
2
The “biography” of the author’s 1923 Little Rock Arkansas craftsman-style bungalow – an
example of just how far it is possible to take a house history.
Overbeck, Ruth Ann, et al. Houses and Homes: Exploring Their History. Nashville, Tennessee:
The American Association for State and Local History, 1987. (The Nearby History Series,
David E. Kyvig, Editor).
A guide both to the types of evidence useful in compiling a house history and to methods for
interpreting that evidence to tell a complete and vivid story of a house and its context. Coauthored by Ruth Ann Overbeck, a leading D.C. neighborhood and house historian.
Local History – Practice and Theory
The history of a house is connected to the history of its city and its nation. Those connections
can be exploited to enrich the story a researcher tells about the house – and can also be used to
give insights into the history of the city and the world beyond. Some of the writers below
provide practical advice for exploring the local history that may be relevant to a researcher’s
house history project. Others point out that there’s nothing trivial about house history – and
argue that the most significant kind of history . . . really does begin at home.
Amato, Joseph Anthony. Rethinking Home: A Case for Writing Local History. University of
California Press, 2002.
From the author’s introduction: “This book is neither a manual nor a guide to writing local
history; nor is it a theoretical treatise on the nature of local history. Instead, it is intended as
a book that evokes fresh themes for and alternatives ways of writing about home.” Amato
seeks to connect the study of home to understandings of community and nation.
Brooks, Pamela. How to Research Local History – Find Out All About Your House, Village, or
Town. How-To Books, Ltd., 2008. (2d Edition).
Kammen, Carol. On Doing Local History. Altamira Press, 2003. (2d Edition). American
Association for State and Local History Book Series.
Kyvig, David E., and Myron A. Marty. Nearby History. Altamira Press, 1982. (2d Edition).
American Association for State and Local History Book Series.
Rosenzweig, Roy and David Thelen. The Presence of the Past. New York: Columbia
University Press, 2000.
Say the reviewers: “A surprising number of Americans feel unconnected to the nationcentered version of history taught in classrooms, searching instead for an intimate encounter
with the past through family histories, the collection of memorabilia, and museum
excursions. But these examples of "popular history-making" are more than just anachronistic
remembrances, and Rosenzweig and Thelen recount the ways that Americans use their
historical imaginations to live in the present and shape the future.”
Rybczynski, Witold. Home: The Short History of an Idea. Penguin, 1987.
Humanities Council of Washington, D.C.
Researching the History of Your D.C. House
Selected Bibliography – 2010
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An essay on the concept of comfort in western culture; thoughts on how intimacy, privacy,
ease, and efficiency are provided for by “home”.
Resources for D.C. House Histories
D.C. Architecture
Most guides to local architecture focus on public buildings or “unique” residential architecture
(rather than on the homes in which most Washingtonians live). Nonetheless, these guides are
useful in describing notable buildings in many D.C. neighborhoods, in identifying key D.C.
architects and builders, and in tracing the evolution of the city’s built environment.
Bird, Betty, and Nancy B. Schwartz. Thematic Study of Black Architects and Buildings in
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C.: United Planning Organization, 1993.
Harrison, Mosley Ethridge. The Black Architects of Washington, D.C., 1900-present. Ph.D.
dissertation, Catholic University of America, 1979.
Moeller, C. Martin, Jr. AIA Guide to the Architecture of Washington, D.C. Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 2006. (4th Edition).
The most recent edition of the AIA’s guide to notable buildings around the city.
Scott, Pamela, and Antoinette J. Lee. Buildings of the District of Columbia. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1993.
This guide to notable Washington, D.C. buildings includes thoughtful essays on aspects of
local architecture.
Reiff, Daniel D. Washington Architecture, 1791-1861: Problems in Development. Washington,
D.C.: U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, 1971.
Chapter III, “The Conservative and Vernacular Tradition in Local Architecture”, (pp. 49-88)
discusses and provides images of nineteenth-century Washington architecture, and is
particularly useful for Georgetown.
D.C. History
Time-tested local sources.
Bryan, Wilhelmus Bogart. A History of the National Capital: From its Foundation Through the
Period of the Adoption of the Organic Act. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1916 (two
volumes).
Rich context for evolution of neighborhoods in the areas of the city developed prior to 1878.
Humanities Council of Washington, D.C.
Researching the History of Your D.C. House
Selected Bibliography – 2010
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Gillette, Howard. Between Justice and Beauty: Race, Planning, and the Failure of Urban
Policy in Washington, D.C. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.
Gillette provides context for understanding the politics behind the planning decisions that
have shaped present-day Washington.
Green, Constance McLaughlin. Secret City: A History of Race Relations in the Nation’s
Capital. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967.
A path-breaking study of D.C. race relations by one of the city’s leading historians.
Green, Constance McLaughlin. Washington: A History of the Capital, 1800-1950. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1976 (reissue).
Still the standard history of the city through 1950.
Melder, Keith. City of Magnificent Intentions: A History of Washington, District of Columbia.
Washington, D.C.: Intac, Inc., 1998 (Second edition).
Designed for use in teaching D.C. history in D.C. Public Schools, this superb volume is a
comprehensive and well-illustrated guide and a great quick-reference to topics in D.C.
history.
Proctor, John Clagett, editor. Washington, Past and Present: A History. New York: Lewis
Historical Publishing Company, Inc., 1930.
Volumes I and II offer brief articles covering a range of historical, social, and cultural topics
through the 1920s. Volumes III, IV, and V provide biographical sketches of selected
twentieth-century District notables.
Washingtoniana Division, D.C. Public Library, “50 Essential Washington, D.C. History Books”,
http://www.h-net.org/~dclist/50books.html.
A useful compilation of the most prominent scholarship on the city of Washington.
D.C. Neighborhoods
Arcadia Publishing. Images of America. (Series.)
The “Images of America” series includes more than a dozen volumes dealing with
Washington, D.C. and its neighborhoods. The series generally emphasizes photographs over
text. Find a listing of D.C.-related volumes here:
http://www.arcadiapublishing.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?
Historic Preservation Office, D.C.
The District’s Historic Preservation Office, located within the Office of Planning, offers a
cornucopia of resources for researchers into D.C. neighborhood history. Click the
“Brochures & Publications” link on the HPO webpage for online access to HPO
neighborhood brochures, historic district maps, and other publications.
www.planning.dc.gov/hpo
Humanities Council of Washington, D.C.
Researching the History of Your D.C. House
Selected Bibliography – 2010
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Junior League of Washington. The City of Washington: An Illustrated History. New York:
Wings Books, 1977.
Well-captioned images from two centuries of Washington history.
Smith, Kathryn Schneider, ed. Washington At Home: An Illustrated History of Neighborhoods in
the Nation’s Capital. 2nd Edition. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010.
Well-illustrated essays on District neighborhoods from a team of local historians
D.C. Planning
Gutheim, Frederick and Antoinette J. Lee. Worthy of the Nation: The History of Planning for
the National Capital. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006 (Second edition).
Key source for the history of the planning decisions that have shaped Washington, D.C.,
from its eighteenth-century inception to twenty-first century developments.
Longstreth, Richard. Housing Washington: Two Centuries of Residential Development and
Planning in the National Capital Area. Center for American Places, 2010.
From one of Washington’s leading architectural historians.
Online resources
As with the print resources, the house history guides listed below are jurisdiction-specific, but
they nonetheless provide strategies for house history researchers in any location. The Cyndi’s
List, Internet Public Library, and Langenberg sites each list a number of useful print and web
resources.
In addition to consulting the webpages listed below, researchers may want to connect with
online communities focussed on Washington history. Members of both groups are a terrific
research resource: in a research quandary ? Post your question to these two lists:
H-DC, a member of H-Net Humanities & Social Sciences OnLine. Researchers can review H-DC
resources, and subscribe to the list at http://www.h-net.org/~dclist/.
HistoricWashington, a Yahoo Group listserv, sponsors an active conversation about D.C.
history and related topics. Researchers can join the list at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HistoricWashington/.
American Association for State and Local History. www.aaslh.org (accessed July 2010).
Resources for local historians. AASLH’s online bookstore
(https://www.aaslhnet.org/aaslhssa/ecssashop.shopping_page) provides a range of resources.
See in particular AASLH’s “Technical Leaflets Series” (each item downloadable for a small
fee) includes Methods of Research for the Amateur Historian (#21), 1969; The History of a
House: How to Trace It (#89), 1976; Using Oral History for a Family History Project, 1980;
Copying Historical Photographs (#139), 1981; Using Memoirs to Write Local History
Humanities Council of Washington, D.C.
Researching the History of Your D.C. House
Selected Bibliography – 2010
6
(#145), 1982; Caring for Family Treasures: A Basic How-to from Storage to Donation
(#225), 2004, among others. See also the AASLH’s local history publications partner, the
Altamira Press, www.altamirapress.com.
Bezat, Barbara, and Alan Lathrop. “Drafting a House History.” University of Minnesota
Libraries. http://special.lib.umn.edu/manuscripts/HSEHIST_Complete.htm (accessed July
2010).
Commission on Chicago Landmarks. “Your House Has a History: A Step-By-Step Guide to
Researching Your Property.” City of Chicago.
http://egov.cityofchicago.org/Landmarks/pdf/Your_House_Has_A_History.pdf (accessed July
2010).
This guide is targeted to Chicagoland homes, but provides research strategies helpful to
house historians generally.
Cyndi’s List. “House and Building Histories.” Cyndi’s List.
http://www.cyndislist.com/houses.htm#General (accessed July 2010).
A collection of resources for the local historian.
The Internet Public Library. “Guide to Researching the History of A House.” The IPL
Consortium. http://www.ipl.org/div/pf/entry/76687 (accessed July 2010).
A list of websites helpful to the house historian
Kansas State Historical Society. “House History Check List.” Kansas State Historical Society.
http://www.kshs.org/genealogists/househistorychecklist.pdf (accessed July 2010).
Langenberg, David. “Researching the History of Your House.” University of Delaware Library.
http://www2.lib.udel.edu/subj/hist/resguide/house-bib.htm (accessed July 2010).
A useful bibliography of house history resources.
Minnesota Historical Society. “Local History – How-to: House History.” Minnesota Historical
Society. http://www.mnhs.org/localhistory/bldghistory/househistory.htm (July 2010).