Mihran Mesrobian House
After two decades designing Washington’s grandest apartment houses and hotels for other clients, architect Mihran Mesrobian finally built something for himself — an Art Moderne house toned down just enough to satisfy the neighbors.
At a glance
Mihran Mesrobian, an Armenian-American architect who had shaped Washington, D.C.’s skyline through the 1920s and 30s with apartment buildings and hotels, designed this Chevy Chase house in 1941 as the only residence he ever built for himself. He chose the Art Moderne style — asymmetrical massing, whitewashed brick, glass block panels — for the two-story frame-and-brick house he shared with his wife Zabelle, adding a perimeter wall and gates in 1945.
Key facts
- Built: 1941 (house); 1945 (perimeter wall and gates)
- Architect: Mihran Mesrobian, for his own family
- Style: Art Moderne
- Materials: Frame and brick veneer, whitewashed brick, glass block panels
- Address: 7410 Connecticut Avenue, Chevy Chase, Maryland
- Heritage: NRHP #100001794 (November 13, 2017)
History
By 1941, Mihran Mesrobian had already designed some of Washington, D.C.’s best-known apartment buildings and hotels, working within the design conventions his commercial clients expected. His own house gave him a rare chance to build without a client’s brief, and his first designs pushed toward a considerably more radical, modernistic scheme than what stands today — local neighborhood covenants forced him to tone the design down before construction.
Mesrobian lived in the house with his wife Zabelle until his death in 1975, the one building in his long Washington career built purely for himself. It remained a private residence for decades afterward before its 2017 National Register listing recognized both its architectural quality and its unique status as an architect’s self-portrait in brick and glass block.
What you see
The house’s asymmetrical massing, whitewashed brick walls, and glass block panels are textbook Art Moderne devices, softened here from Mesrobian’s more ambitious original scheme to fit a conservative residential street. A hip roof and full basement ground the design in conventional 1940s American house construction, even as the brick and glass detailing signal a modernist sensibility unusual for the neighborhood.
Practical information
- Status: Private residence — exterior viewing only
- Best view: From Connecticut Avenue, taking in the whitewashed brick facade and perimeter wall
- Photography: Exterior photographable from the public street; respect the private residence
Getting there
The house stands on Connecticut Avenue in Chevy Chase, Maryland, just north of the Washington, D.C. line, reachable via the Red Line Metro to Friendship Heights and a short walk or bus ride north. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is about 10 miles south.
Nearby
- Chevy Chase historic residential district — surrounds the house
- Kennedy-Warren Apartment Building — another Mesrobian-era Washington Art Deco landmark, a few miles south on Connecticut Avenue
Sources
- Wikipedia: Mihran Mesrobian House
- National Register of Historic Places, NRHP #100001794 (November 13, 2017)
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