Well, Walmart and Foulger Pratt can breathe a sigh of relief: Staff at the city’s Historic Preservation Office have recommended that the Historic Preservation Review Board not designate the old streetcar car storage barn at Georgia and Missouri Avenues NW as a landmark, after activists nominated the structure in a last-ditch attempt to kill plans for a Walmart on the site. In their report, staff reasoned that since many car barns had been preserved already, and this particular example had been altered significantly from its original state, it didn’t justify historic protection. The Board will still take up the case at its meeting on Thursday, but only rarely do they rule against what the reviewers conclude.

In other HPRB news, staff also recommended that the future site of American University’s law school be designated as a new historic district, but that the 1955 buildings be deemed “non-contributing,” which would allow much more flexibility for development on the campus than some community members had feared.

Photo from The Brightwoodian.