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The Coolest Real Estate Workshops of the Year

  • March 28, 2013

by Shilpi Paul

The Coolest Real Estate Workshops of the Year: Figure 1
Plat map from the Washingtoniana room

Wondering if your home was built by famed developer Harry Wardman? Want to know when exactly that sunroom was added? Interested in finding out if someone famous used to sleep in your bedroom?

This Saturday, the Washingtoniana division of the Martin Luther King Jr. Library will by opening its doors for two House History Workshops. The 10am session and the 12:15pm session will guide interested homeowners through the process of digging up history about their homes.

The Washingtoniana division is full of real estate maps, building permits and resident lists going back more than a century. After finding their home on one of the plat maps and learning when it was turned from land into a home, residents can see every building permit associated with the address, putting together the story of how their current home came to look the way it does.

Ambitious historians can also find the identity of all past residents, and look them up in the city directory or on Heritage Quest to discover more about their families and occupations.

The Washingtoniana division is open all the time, but the prospect of flipping through books of giant maps and scouring directories may be daunting to some. This workshop, which is being sponsored by the DC Humanities Council, will walk interested historians through the process step by step. Register here.

Update: UrbanTurf has learned that both workshops are sold out, but interested homeowners can try their luck via the workshops wait lists.

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This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/washingtoniana_house_history_workshops_this_weekend/6849

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