What’s Next for the R Street Firehouse

• October 7, 2014

by Lark Turner

931 R Street NW

The new owner of the R Street Firehouse featured in Unique Spaces last summer is beginning an exterior renovation to restore the building to its historic condition.

Michael Abbenante has plans to convert a portion of the former firehouse at 931 R Street NW (map) into apartments, but he’s beginning with the exterior, he told UrbanTurf. For onlookers, the most dramatic change will likely be Abbenante’s attempt to change the squared-off garage doors back into the arched doors the building had decades ago.

You can get an idea of what those doors looked like in a historic photo of the former firehouse below:

A photo of the firehouse in 1943 by Gordon Parks. Image via The House History Man.

In addition to the doors, Abbenante said he plans to install a green roof, convert the carriage house into a two-car garage and install 5-6 windows on the right side of the building. The restoration should be finished by next fall, Abbenante said, and any changes to the interior, which is currently being used as a group house, won’t start until then.

In April, Abbenante told us he was planning to convert the building into four dramatic units that would showcase the building’s architecture. But that’s in flux; he’s also considering doing two or three larger units and a handful of smaller ones.

Photo courtesy of Sean Shanahan.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/whats_next_for_the_r_street_firehouse/9061