Georgetown Apartments and Mount Vernon Condominiums

Architect: Unknown

Date: 1960 (Georgetown Apartments) and 1962 (Mount Vernon Condominiums)

Address: Hamilton St between Grove Ave and Monument Ave

The Georgetown Apartments and Mount Vernon Condominiums together form one of the largest collections of suburban housing in Richmond. The complex is arrayed along the west side of the I-195 Expressway in the near West End, extending from Grove Ave at the south to Monument Ave at the north—a distance of more than half a mile. The names of the buildings recall historic sites of Virginia, but its repetitive arrangement is as relentlessly modern as any suburban tract development or city-owned housing project.

The Georgetown Apartments were completed in 1960. Unusually for the time, each unit came with a dedicated off-street parking space. This modern amenity was not available in most older multi-family housing complexes, and responded to the car culture then developing in Richmond and nationally. (The I-195 expressway which now runs adjacent to the site would not open until 1970.) The apartments are entered from the ground floor, where the kitchen and living area are located. Each unit opens to a small walled garden. Two bedrooms are accessed by a staircase internal to each unit, making the buildings more like a collection of row houses than a conventional apartment, in which one-level units are accessed by a shared stair or corridor.

The Mount Vernon Condominiums were completed in 1962, two years after the neighboring apartments. Unlike the renters, the condominium owners share access to an outdoor swimming pool flanked by a summer house. The southernmost building in the Mount Vernon complex, fronting Grove Avenue, is embellished with a colonnade and cupola which is clearly intended to invoke the building’s namesake.

Stylistically, the brick walls, white trim, and black shutters that clad the buildings reflect their West End environs. The complex is formed of two story bar-shaped structures oriented east to west, with either gabled or hipped roofs. In another part of the country (say, Southern California), these structures might have been rendered in a language more easily associated with the 1960s—mid century modernism. Instead, their staid architectural expression helped set the template for multi-family housing in the West End.

Both the Georgetown Apartments and the Mount Vernon Condominiums remain well maintained and have changed little over the past six decades. Their continued popularity with renters and homeowners indicates the appeal of these compact, easy-to-maintain, and conveniently located residences.

DOK