Gordon-Van Tine No. 619 In Washington, D.C.

Authenticated Gordon-Van Tine No. 619 • 6015 33rd St. NW, Washington, D.C. • 1925

This is a Gordon-Van Tine No. 619 ... or a double Gordon-Van Tine No. 619, more accurately.  The original house, built in 1925, is the part on the right, and, in 1990, the house was renovated... I assume that's when this tasteful addition was put on, to the left of the house.  Here's what the GVT No. 619 looked like in the 1926 catalog, next to our DC house:

Or, like this:

The original floor plan would have looked like this, so the house section on the right, of our 33rd Street house, should have something like this:

This is from my 1926 Gordon-Van Tine catalog.

An Authenticated House
I learned about this house thanks to a building permit, and that, of course, authenticates it as a GVT. It's pretty rare to have anything to authenticate a GVT house (though I recently wrote about one that had a set of blueprints, sent to me by the current owner), so having Gordon-Van Tine listed on the permit as both the architect and builder (they may have arranged the contractor for the buyer) was pretty exciting to see.

Building Permit for our GVT No. 619 on 33rd Street NW

The buyer was John Hinton Crabtree, with his bride of only 4 years, Katherine. They were married in 1921, and John was working for the Federal Government as an accountant, I believe... at least he was, in 1920, according to the 1920 census.  By 1930, the census had him living in Yonkers, New York (so soon after building his house in DC!), working as a real estate broker,  but, in 1940 (still in Yonkers, though in yet another house), he was listed as an attorney for the Federal Trade Commission.  I wonder if he didn't perhaps maintain two residences? 

Summary of John and Katherine's marriage info, from Ancestry.com.

John's WWII draft registration card (though he must have been in his 50s already, I guess you had to register), shows him living in Yonkers, but gives his office in DC, in the House Office Building, as his mailing address. 

source: Ancestry.com

Gordon-Van Tine and Montgomery Ward's Wardway Homes

This house was definitely ordered from Gordon-Van Tine, because we see that on the building permit. However, Gordon-Van Tine was also a lumber mill (they were part of a conglomerate that included the U. N. Roberts lumber company, and they had several mills around the country, producing their pre-cut homes), and they were used by Montgomery Ward to produce their Wardway homes. 

As explained in my GVT No. 140 blog post... information source is Rebecca L. Hunter's Kithouse.org website.

Apparently, Gordon-Van Tine and Wardway had an agreement allowing them both to market the same homes (different names, exactly the same house) at the same time, so, in the year that we see this house, the No. 619, offered in the GVT catalog, it was also offered by Montgomery Ward, in their Wardway Homes catalog, as the Parkway.

Here is the No. 619 in the 1926 Gordon-Van Tine catalog, page 38 (Archive.org)

And here is the Wardway Parkway, in their 1926 catalog (thanks to Daily Bungalow / AntiqueHome.org for sharing.)

More Information

For more information about Gordon-Van Tine, see these additional blog posts of mine:
• Gordon-Van Tine Stratford in Washington, DC

• Gordon-Van Tine No. 535 in Webster Groves, Missouri (St. Louis area)

• Gordon-Van Tine president E. C. Roberts' GVT No. 560 in Davenport, Iowa

• Gordon-Van Tine No. 712 in Watertown, Wisconsin

• Gordon-Van Tine: How to tell the difference between a No. 535, No. 536, No. 560, and Glencoe

• Gordon-Van Tine: A Testimonial House in Pittsfield, Massachusetts

• Gordon-Van Tine's Lumber Mill In St. Louis (and a GVT Glencoe in St. Louis)

And, if you're interested in Montgomery Ward's Wardway Homes:

• Wardway Devonshire in Delmar, NY and Wardway Barcelona model in Buffalo, NY

• Wardway Winthrop Model Home in Pittsburgh

• Wardway Fairfax models in Tonawanda, NY and South Charleston, WV

• Wardway Berkley in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Whew! I guess I've written quite a bit about Gordon-Van Tine homes over the last couple of years. I didn't realize there was so much. If you're interested simply in more background on Gordon-Van Tine, in general, go to Dale Wolicki's website, GordonVanTine.com, where you can read about Dale's interesting research, and see a number of GVT houses he has found over the years.