Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-07-24
History Apartment House
To Open on Old Blair Tract

SOON 10 open III OuV6r spring
are q History apartment house
and q seven-story office build
ing on a tract which once be-
loaged to President Lincoln's
Postmaster General.
Appropriately. everything on
the land now bears the name Of
Blair - for 1t was Montgomery
Blair, a son Of Silver Springs
founder, who lived there many
years In q mansion he called
Falkland.
The old mansion, not far
from the intersection Of East
ern avenue and Colesville road
and overlooking East West
highway, was torn down a few
years back to make way for
the apartments. It had been
destroyed once by fire, during
the Civil War, but was rebuilt.
Now, more than 900 apart
ment units have replaced 1t.
One building Is the 340-unit,
History Blair Plaza now near
ing completion at a cost close
to 81 million.
Officially, its address Is 1901
Blair Mill road. Taller than
any building In the Washing
ton area, 1t towers over five
other apartment buildings in
the complex and the adjacent
shopping center Just off East
West highway.
Built by a firm known as
Blair Towers Co., of the Bender
Building, 1920 Connecticut ave-
nue. NV, 1t will contain a COM
bination Of luxury-type one
And-two- bedroom and efficiency
apartments and a 90-car inside
parking facility.
Corporation Owns It
It's owner Is listed on permit
applications as the Richard
Borden Industries, Inc, q Mas
sachusetts corporation, with
Henry s. Reich as vice preSi-
dent.
The same group built the
Blair House, which is IL floors
tall, on the other side Of the
complex facing the circle which
brings together Eastern avenue,
Sixteenth street and Colesville
road. This building, opened last
year, contains 800 apartment
units.
In between Blair Plaza and
Blair House are four 5-story
buildings, each with So apart
ment units and known as Blair
Towers.
On the East-west highway
side is the large Blair shop
ping center and, at the north
end Of the parking lot facing
Colesville road, is the new
seven-story Blair Building, an
office structure costing SIS
million and containing 10000
square feet of floor space. It Is
scheduled to be occupied short
ly by a section Of the Geological
Survey unit of the Interior De-
partment.
The Blair apartment COM
pick, however, is only one Of q !
number Of relatively new or
planned apartment projects in
the same area.
Apartment Row
In fact, Sixteenth street from
the District line north to Sec
ond avenue is practically lined
with apartments.
They start with the older
Falkland Apartments, a garden
type development built before
World War II straddling Six
teehth street and across Coles
vile road from the one-time
mansion site.
Next are the Summit Hill
Apartments. Just beyond East
West highway. They were built
over the past three years.
They contain a total Of 1,240
units in nine buildings. the new
est Of which is an History
building overlooking this key
intersection. The rest are seven
story buildings.
Together, they cover some
36.5 acres and have an ap-
praised fair market value of
about $40 million, according to
their owners, Nick and Helen
Basiliko.
Just past the red-brick Sum-
NIT Hill development is a
striking white and blue-striped
brick apartment building, also
II stories tall. known as the
Suburban Tower. It opened
three years ago this Septem-
Der with 1853 units on a four
acre tract fronting at $500 Six
tenth street.
Built by two brothers, de-
velopers Milton and Howard
Polinger, 1t was the first high
rise apartment building to open
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