11th Street Entrance to the hotel
On the National Register of Historic Places since 1990
Yesterday Forrester Construction Company took down the wall that was lurching into the alley behind the Morrison Clark Hotel, thereby immediately stabilizing the stable.
One can easily appreciate the opening for the original ridge beam just below the apex of the roof line in this photograph of the East wall.
Analysis
of structural building failures like this is a little like an architectural autopsy. One takes many small clues and ultimately puts all the pieces together and reflects until it makes sense. An experienced and highly placed authority on historic preservation and Washington architecture shared the
following fascinating and elegant insights into why this stable roof and wall collapsed.
“There was a ridge beam. The
original brick west wall had been removed by the 1980s addition. Then the only
thing holding up the ridge beam was a furred wall of nothing more than drywall
on metal studs. There were no ceiling joists or collar beams tying the roof
rafters together like a letter “A” so the only thing keeping the bottomless
triangle of roof rafters together was friction with the 1980s addition and the
nails at the rafter/ridge beam connections."
(photo courtesy of Kathy McEnany)
(photo courtesy of Kathy McEnany)
But the South wall was buttressed by
the modern exterior brick stair well. That acted like a buttress laterally
supporting the south wall. That was an anchor point that didn’t move. So all
the lateral movement was concentrated on the North wall pushing it way out.
The collapse was a little bit like a
rubber band too, meaning that the alley wall went out then back in a little.
Midway through the rafters’ fall, they reached a point of being perfectly
horizontal. At that point they reached their maximum lateral dimension. But as
the beam continued to fall, the rafters became diagonal again (just inverted),
reducing their lateral dimension and as much as the wall/rafter connections
survived the shock, cinched the North wall back in a bit. That kind of explains
why the gutter on the South wall is pulled up and in too.”
(photo courtesy of Kathy McEnany)
In the author's opinion, Forrester, DCRA and HPO deserve commendation for reacting so quickly and in professional synergy to ameliorate a
potentially serious problem. Once rebuilt to the original configuration, this
stable will regain its integrity and smile with its new facelift.
These small alley buildings may not seem like very much today to most people, but on reflection 20 years from now, they will be recognized as the crucial little ingredients that make the difference between whether an alley is interesting or not. They speak of human scale and activity - something that is hard to capture in the massive block structures that surround and dwarf them.
