Historic Homes Tour: 2220 Capitol Avenue

The Mannix home is a stately Foursquare house with a simple form and understated details. Like

other houses of this type, it is square in appearance, with a hipped roof and boxed eaves that flare outward. A simple frieze lines the eaves, abutting the tops of the second-story windows. Classical details include the Ionic pilasters at the front corners of the home. Each is two stories tall and rises up to meet the frieze as if supporting the roof. The full front porch is supported by three Tuscan Doric columns set atop piers that are positioned along the solid porch railing. The general square symmetry of the house is offset only by a canted bay window within the front porch. The front door is recessed within paneled walls and flanked by narrow sidelights.

Dating from 1903-1904, 2220 Capitol was probably built by Louise Heilbron, whose own home was the famous Heilbron Mansion at 704 O Street. Because she purchased the lot in 1903, the same year that her daughter Edith married William J. Mannix, the Capitol Avenue house may have been intended as a kind of wedding gift to the young couple. However, they and their son William Heilbron Mannix (born in 1905) did not always live here. From 1909-1917, the house was rented out to Frederick Lewis, a pharmacist and manager of the H. E. Yardley Company. Between 1921-1932 it was occupied by the members of The Recluse Club, a group of single men who had been living at the Y.M.C.A. According to an article about the club's creation, they wanted to experience a "genuine home life." The experiment must have been successful, because the Recluse Club occupied the house for nearly a dozen years. At one of the group's first big parties, held in 1922, William and Edith Mannix (who were then living at Parkview Apartments) served as chaperones. The Mannixes returned to their old home in 1933 and remained until 1943. From the mid-1940s until the early 1980s, the building was essentially a multi-family residence, with apartments and rooms for rent. It made the headlines in the late 1980s, when a controversy arose over its use as a "temporary residence for homeless women and children." Shortly thereafter the building was converted to professional offices. The current owners (2015) have returned the building to its original use as single-family residence. They also have built a new carriage-house-style structure behind the main house.

William Mannix, the son of a contractor who trained first as a plasterer, made his career as an automobile dealer, specializing in the sales of Maxwell and Columbia models from 1908-1915 (he was one of the city's first car dealers). In 1916 he joined the Don Lee Company, a renowned Cadillac dealership, and was its manager from 1917-1928. His wife Edith ran a confectionary during this period.