<p>A typical early 19th century <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgetown,_Washington,_D.C." class="extiw" title="en:Georgetown, Washington, D.C.">Georgetown</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_architecture" class="extiw" title="en:Federal architecture">Federal</a> house. 
</p><p>	There are no records of when the house was built, so the evidence of the date it was built comes from deeds, assessments, and maps. The first deed on the land was signed on July 16, 1804, as part of the 61 acres of Beall's Addition, which was added to Georgetown in 1783. Later, in 1804, Thomas R. Beall sold four lots, Nos. 203-206, to Thomas Sim Lee, who then in 1813 sold the four to Thomas Lee for $2000. He in turn in 1820 sold Lots 203 and 204 to Clement Smith for $3600. The lots were on the south side of West Street, between Washington Street to the east,  Greene Street to the west, while Beall Street was  to the south.  That the 1820 price of  the two lots, 203 and 204, was almost double the 1813 price of the four lots, 203-206, suggests that a house was added sometime between 1813 and 1820. In 1835 Smith then sold the west half of Lot 204 to Philip T. Barry for $2000. Since that half lot sold for as much as the four lots, over half the price of the two lots, suggests that a house was built on the west half of Lot 204 sometime between 1813 and 1820.
</p><p>	In the 1818-19 assessment, Lot 204 , a lot  measuring 120 feet deep by 60 feet wide, was valued at $600. In the next surviving assessment, that of 1835-39, the east side of Lot 204, 30 feet wide, was assessed at $300, while the west part of Lot 204 owned by Clement Smith was described as improved, and assessed at $1750. The improvement, no doubt a house, must have been built on the west part sometime in the period 1818-19 to 1835-39. Considering the evidence from the deeds and the assessments, the house seems to have been built by Clement Smith between 1818-19 and 1820, no later than 1820.
</p><p>	Although there are several maps that show Georgetown before 1851, the first that shows houses was the map by James Keily of 1851. <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1851_Map_of_Georgetown,_crop_from_1851_Map_of_the_City.jpg" title="File:1851 Map of Georgetown, crop from 1851 Map of the City.jpg">The Keily map</a> shows three houses on the south side of West Street between Washington and Greene. One is on the NW corner, another near the NE corner, while the third is located where 2918 is today. According to the Keily map, these were not only the only three houses in that city block but also there were no houses on the north side of West Street between Washington and Greene. 
</p><p>	In 1880, West Street was renamed P Street, Beall became O Street, while Washington, to the east and Greene to the west, became 29th and 30th Streets.
</p><p>	The house was shown in several scenes in the 1969 film <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topaz_(1969_film)" class="extiw" title="en:Topaz (1969 film)">Topaz</a>, directed by <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock" title="Alfred Hitchcock">Alfred Hitchcock</a>. While the scenes of the front of the house, the front hall and living room, and the stairs are real enough, the wood-paneled room on the second floor is a creation of movie magic: that room does not exist in the house.
</p>
The house is listed in the <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/dc0710/">Historic American Buildings Survey: HABS DC, GEO, 157</a>
henrytow
2016-05-17
<span class="int-own-work" lang="en">Own work</span>