Getting The Basics Right

Wisconsin House Inspires Loyalty With Few Frills

Wisconsin House, a nine-story apartment building halfway between Georgetown and American universities, has been attracting and keeping residents for about four decades.

Some are young professionals or students attracted by the building's proximity to the universities. Nonetheless, "I'd say about 30 percent of the building is older residents who have been there for many years," said Christopher Wallis, a property manager for Wisconsin House and vice president of Fred A. Smith Co., which manages the property.

Ian Skillings says he has lived in the building for almost nine years. "A colleague at work was a tenant and recommended this building," Skillings said. "The management and staff are great, which is why I'm still here. Any problems get fixed quickly."

Resident manager Radimeh Illingworth lives in the building. She has daytime office hours Monday through Friday but is available to handle emergencies at other times, Wallis said.

Illingworth's availability and flexibility helped sell Amanda Bridenhagen on Wisconsin House.

"I had looked at so many buildings. I didn't want to live in a group house, and I wanted a one-bedroom," said Bridenhagen, a resident since July. "I guess one of the main reasons is the manager, Mrs. Illingworth, was so accommodating." Illingworth was willing to work around Bridenhagen's schedule while she apartment-hunting, applying and moving in.

Another reason she picked Wisconsin House: The building has "possibly one of the greatest roof decks in all of Washington," Bridenhagen said.

Wallis said that, sometime in the 1990s, he appealed to longtime resident and landscape architect Charles H. Trace Jr. to give the deck a botanical makeover. Each year since, Wallis has reimbursed Trace for dressing the area with a variety of plants and flowers arranged in large planters. The deck was the subject of 1995 Post article on container gardens.

While the plants are lovely, the view from the deck is amazing. Skillings, who was reading in one of the deck's chairs one recent sunny afternoon, described it as a "tremendous panorama."

Indeed, it seems as if you can see all of Washington -- the blue dome of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the Capitol, the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial and the Kennedy Center. You can even see beyond the city limits to Reagan National Airport and Alexandria's George Washington Masonic Memorial.

It's a great place to be on July 4, Wallis said, because several fireworks displays can be seen at once.

It's not bad on regular nights either, said Karen Christie, a resident of nine years who was sunbathing on the roof deck on a recent day. "It's gorgeous," she said.