One of the enduring questions for tour guides of this city is why, among all the streets that are named for states here, 48 are called ‘avenues’ while the other two, Ohio and California, have only a drive and a street, respectively, named for them. Ohio Drive can be understood due to its location along the Potomac, but California surely deserves more than a street that leads – intermittently – from Massachusetts Avenue to Florida Avenue.
And yet, it turns out that this is an improvement over the original street named for the most populous state in the Union. Originally, the golden state rated only a one-block stretch through the middle of a square – essentially an alley.
When the area east of the Capitol came in for serious development after the Civil War, the land in the square bounded by 1st, 2nd, E and F Streets Northeast were bought by Benjamin H. Warder (pic). Warder had made is pile in farm equipment, then moved to D.C. to take part in its society. Warder, who would later erect the building on the corner of 9th and F Streets NW that is currently occupied by the Spy Museum, decided to get into residential real estate as well, and proposed to build 46 houses on California Street.
The first 15 were begun in May, 1891, and the Sunday Herald and Weekly National Intelligencer wrote on the 24th of that month that California street would be “one of the most attractive residence streets in the northeastern section of the city” once “the improvements now contemplated and now in progress are completed.” The houses were to have six rooms each, be made of pressed bricks, and cost $3,000 once completed.
While these houses, and another 13 houses on the same side of the street were completed, none would be built on the opposite side of the street which eventually made for great trouble, but at first, the houses that stretched along the south side of the street were a great success. They were occupied by a wide mix of middle and working class residents: many clerks, a number of police, carpenters, grocer, printer, brakeman, and tile setters all rubbed elbows there.
The house of Orren Hamblett, a member of the Capitol Police, was frequently mentioned in the society pages when his daughters threw a party or had friends visiting. Otherwise, the street was mentioned only when a marriage or death occurred – or people complained about the alleys or state if the street.
California Street in 1903, showing the proposed streets that are to be built of Union Station. (LOC)
It was, however, not any of the issues brought to the attention of the authorities that eventually caused real trouble. Instead, it was the embankment on the unbuilt, north side. Here, young Willie Homburg, who lived at 117 California Street, took a terrible tumble during a game of tag. He not only broke his arm, but injured himself permanently, which caused his father to press a suit for $25,000 against Warder’s estate, as the builder had died in 1894.
California Street did not last much longer. After the new Union Station was announced in 1901, it became clear that the street and all its houses would have to give way to the new plaza out front. By then, there was also a California Street in Northwest (actually, sometimes even referred to as California Avenue) and it was probably with very little sadness that this street disappeared, except for the people for whom it had been home for about ten years.
Today, the site of California Street is taken up mainly by the Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building.
Thanks to Mark Eckenwiler (better known as 20002ist) for suggesting this topic.