This is a newer office building (it doesn't show in Google Earth). There is a Starbucks and the Billy Goat Tavern on either end.
From the NAR website:
500 New Jersey Avenue, NW, the site of
the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
REALTORS® new Washington office, is part of
Square 627 on the City’s planning documents. The
three-sided property is bordered by E Street to the
south, 1st Street to the west, and New Jersey
Avenue to the north and east.
The unusual shape of Square 627 was part
of Pierre L’Enfant’s original
plans for the city, drawn up in
1791. Today, anyone standing at
the 500 New Jersey Avenue site,
or anywhere else along the
avenue, enjoys a clear vista of the
Capitol. That view was of vital
importance to L’Enfant, and he
even reportedly razed, without
permission, a partially
constructed house that was in the
avenue’s right-of-way south of
the Capital to preserve his vision.
In the early 1790s, work crews cleared and
laid out the avenue and surrounding areas,
including Square 627. While the southeast
segment of New Jersey Avenue was soon
developed to include shops and residences, the
northwest portion saw very little activity and was
never extended as far as the city boundary, despite
L’Enfant’s intentions. Square 627 sat unoccupied
and unused for nearly 60 years.
The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co. built a
passenger station at New Jersey Avenue and C
Street, NW, in 1852; it was at that time that the
development of the area finally began to take
off. By 1856, New Jersey Avenue was graded and
paved from the Capitol to C Street; the rest of the
avenue (past Square 627 north to New York
Avenue) was graded and one lane was graveled.
Nicholas Acker, a German immigrant who
came to the United States in
the 1830s, purchased and
subdivided Square 627 into
eight lots in February
1859. A few years later he
also bought and subdivided
property on Square 629,
immediately to the south of
square 627. A stonemason
by trade, Acker owned and
operated Acker & Co. nearby on the corner of North Capitol and E Streets,
supplying granite, tiles and other building materials to
businesses and residents throughout the city from
around 1856 to 1872.
During the 1870s the District government
paved the full length of New Jersey Avenue and
planted elm trees on both sides of the avenue in the
1880s. In 1884, the northern tip of Square 627 was
acquired by the federal government. By 1894 the tiny
park, officially known as Reservation No. 196, was
graded and planted with shrubs and trees.
Building permits were not required in
Washington before 1877, and very few of Acker’s
own records survive today. An 1874 city directory
shows that Acker had built three brick buildings on the
E Street side of Square 627 and a fourth at the north
tip of the property along New Jersey Avenue, while
lots between remained undeveloped. On Acker’s
death in 1879 the property was inherited by his eldest
son, William, who built three more small brick
buildings along 1st Street in the 1890s. William
Acker died in the mid-1920s, when the property was
sold to Penn Realty Corp. of Washington, DC. Penn
Realty owned the property until 1939.
Nicholas Acker’s own records suggest that he
rented his properties to
shopkeepers and families at
least as early as 1861,
although it is unclear who his
renters were. Not until 1915,
in fact, can a clear picture be
made of the people and
businesses who called the
buildings of Square 627
home.
Throughout the 20th century, a parade of
typical neighborhood businesses operated out of the
shops along 1st Street and New Jersey Avenue, while
E Street was occupied primarily by shops and a few
families. According to the 1915 District of Columbia
city directory, the buildings along the 1st Street side of
Square 627 featured a pool hall, tailor, shoemaker and
corner grocery. Another grocer occupied 500 New
Jersey Avenue that year. A car driver, David Davis,
lived at 51 E Street in 1915, while liquor wholesaler
Herman Shapiro and his family lived next door at 53 E
Street. In 1921, the businesses included a junk shop
and tire retailer. The shoemaker and tailor remained
on 1st Street for several years, and were joined by a
barber shop in 1928, which stayed until the early
1960s. In 1930, the William Burke Restaurant opened
at 523 1st Street. Burke lived across the street at 510
1st Street, but moved to 51 E Street in 1933. Burke
became a sheet metal worker and closed his cafe´ at the
beginning of World War II. He and his family continued to live at 51 E Street until around 1955.
Several other businesses came and went
through the years. Morris Berger’s grocery store
occupied 53 E Street from 1933 until the early
1940s. In 1948, 53 E Street was a used furniture
store. Later, around 1962, 51 and 53 E Street were
combined into one storefront, Jack’s Hardware. In
addition to the barber, the 1st Street buildings
included a beauty salon, a carry-out restaurant and
a dry cleaner. In the 1970s and 1980s, Lerner Law
Books, SND Development and an office supply
store rented the spaces along E Street. In the
1990s, 53 E Street was home to Capon Pizza, then
Parlow’s Pizza & Subs; by 1997 the property was
vacant.
While numerous businesses and people
worked and lived along 1st and E Streets,
automotive concerns were a prominent feature of
the New Jersey Avenue side of Square 627 for
nearly 100 years. City real estate maps from 1897
show a small stable on New Jersey Avenue, tucked
in behind the brick buildings on E Street; in 1901,
William Acker filed a permit to have this structure
converted for use as a motor repair workshop. In
1915, the property was an automobile repair
business.
Gasoline tanks were first installed at 500
New Jersey Avenue in 1919, turning the property
into a gas station, with an auto supply and repair
shop. Mrs. Lola Stallings, and later her son, Louis,
operated Stallings Gas & Auto Repair from around
1925 until 1950. Several local taxi companies
made the gas station their home base from the
1920s through 1950s.
In 1939 the Square 627 properties were
purchased by Paul
Himmelfarb, a Polish
immigrant who made his
fortune in Washington real
estate and who at one point
owned 60 automotive
service stations in the
area. In 1950 the service
station at 500 New Jersey
Avenue was purchased by
the American Oil Co.,
later known as Amoco. Amoco retained ownership
of the property until 2002.
The rest of Square 627, which consisted of
the properties along E Street, continued to be
owned by Paul Himmelfard and, starting in 1956,
the Paul and Annetta Himmelfarb Foundation. In
1993, the Himmelfarb properties were bought by
the Hellman Co., a Washington development firm
that intended to revitalize the area. NAR purchased
Square 627 in 2002.
The REALTOR® building located at 500 New
Jersey Avenue, NW is a Class “A” 12-story modern
and environmentally friendly structure. It is located
within three blocks of the U.S. Capitol.
The presence of REALTORS® and their new
building tenants will attract new businesses to the
Capitol Hill area. Its design will set a new standard for
area structures. And it will boast state-of-the-art
environmental features.
Size: 93,000 rentable square feet.
Cost: $46 million.
Design Architect: Graham Gund Architects,
Cambridge, Mass.
Architect: SMB Architects, P.C., Washington, D.C.
Developer: Lawrence N. Brandt, Inc.
Development Consultant: CarrAmerica
Development, Inc.
Leasing Agent: Cassidy and Pinkard.
Occupancy: Third quarter 2004.
New Business: The building will bring new business
to Capitol Hill. While NAR will occupy five floors of
the 12-story building, the balance of office space and
two retail spaces—about 51,000 square feet—will be
leased.
Local Companies: Most of the $46 million in
construction and acquisition goes to Washington,
D.C., area businesses.
Aesthetics: The building will raise the bar in terms of
design. The concept is dramatic and modern yet
appropriate for the location. Three world-class
architectural firms submitted design concepts.
Distinguished Panelists: To ensure a design that
would be first class and at the same time enhance the
Capitol Hill location, NAR selected a panel of three
prominent architectural professionals from
Washington, D.C., to join REALTORS® in making the
final choice of the design concept: George White,
FAIA, former Architect of the Capitol; Harry
Robinson III, FAIA, former dean of architecture at
Howard University and chairman of the DC
Commission of Fine Arts and Colden “Coke”
Florance, FAIA, a prominent DC architect.