The four-story, brick warehouse building at 52 O Street NW, located on a one-block length of O Street just west of North Capitol Street, was built in 1914 on the site of a small coal and wood yard in what was then a remote and industrial corner of downtown.
The four-story, brick warehouse building at 52 O Street NW, located on a one-block length of O Street just west of North Capitol Street, was built in 1914 on the site of a small coal and wood yard in what was then a remote and industrial corner of downtown.
The building was designed by the German-born architect Clement Didden, who had worked under Richard Morris Hunt in New York assisting in the design of such landmarks as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Vanderbilt estate in Ashville, North Carolina. Over the years, 52 O Street has been home to a meat-packing warehouse, a plumbing company, a Hechts furniture warehouse, and Decca Records, a premier record label.
It was in 1978 that Eric Rudd built out 52 O Street as a low-cost art studios. Rudd, a renowned sculptor now residing in North Adams, Massachusetts, recognized the shortage of affordable studio space for Washington artists. 52 O Street's warehouse structure was ideal for conversion to art studios, since it offered open spaces, soaring ceilings, and tremendous flexibility for arranging large and small studios. His efforts were not without their obstacles, and Rudd chronicles these in a book he authored, The Art Studio/Loft Manual: For Ambitious Artists and Creators.
Today, O Street Studios thrives amid the bustle of NoMA, nearby Chinatown, and the vibrant Truxton neighborhood. Marty Youmans purchased the building in 2003 and continues to maintain 52 0 Street as a community for working artists.
For more information about the history of 52 O Street, please visit the Scenes from the Past profile in the InTowner (PDF).