Totten
In 1923, the Warder House was about to be demolished to erect an office building. Architect George Oakley Totten, Jr. bought the exterior stone (except the main doorway, which reportedly went to the Smithsonian) and much of the interior woodwork. He transported the building, piece by piece (reportedly in a Model T Ford), to its present Meridian Hill site, reassembled it over two years, and converted it into an apartmenthouse. The reconstructed building later housed the National Lutheran Council, and the Antioch College of Law.
The building was listed on the D.C. Inventory in 1964, and on the National Register in 1972.
Antioch College left in 1986. The building was vacant for more than a dozen years, and was virtually reduced to a shell by fires and vandalism. It was placed on the DC Preservation League's Most Endangered Places List in 1996, and remained on that list for several years.
Renovated in 2001-02, it now serves as the entrance to Warder Mansion, a complex of 38 one- and two-bedroom apartments carved out of the house and a 9-story addition.
Read more about this topic: Warder Mansion