Mihran Mesrobian

Mihran Mesrobian (; 10 May 1889 – 21 September 1975) was an Armenian-American architect whose career spanned over fifty years and in several countries. Having received an education in the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul, Mesrobian began his career as an architect in İzmir and in Istanbul. While in Constantinople, Mesrobian served as the palace architect to the last Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed V.

During World War I, Mesrobian was drafted into the Ottoman army and became a decorated soldier. He participated in the Gallipoli Campaign and served in the Eastern front against the Russians during the Caucasus Campaign and the Arabs during the Arab Revolt. During this time, the Armenian genocide began, and his family in his native Afyonkarahisar were deported and never to be heard of again. Mesrobian lost fifteen members of his family as a result of the genocide. He was held captive under the Arabs but was ultimately freed with the help of T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia).

Mesrobian immigrated to the United States in 1921 and became a prominent architect in the Washington, D.C. area. He became the primary in-house architect for Washington developer Harry Wardman. Much of his architecture reflected an Art Deco style, however a few of his projects were done in the Italian Renaissance and Moderne styles as well. Among his most noted works are the Hay–Adams Hotel, the Dupont Circle Building, The Carlton Hotel, Sedgwick Gardens, Calvert Manor, and Glebe Center.

Early life Mihran Mesrobian was born 10 May 1889 in Afyonkarahisar, Ottoman Empire to Gaspar and Miriam (née Palanjian), an Armenian family of merchants. Mihran's immediate family consisted of three brothers and one sister. The Mesrobian family had lived in Afyonkarahisar for generations and were involved in the opium and cereal trade. While a student at Sahakian, he further developed his talents by receiving education in penmanship, math, drawing, and manual labor/construction. Sahakian also taught various languages including French, Ottoman Turkish, Armenian, and English, all of which helped Mesrobian in his education and future career. The Dolmabahçe Palace had been neglected for thirty years and was in a state of disrepair during the reign of Sultan Abdulhamid II, who preferred to live in the Yildiz Palace instead. When the Dolmabahçe Palace was restored as an administrative center for the Sultan, a massive restoration of the building was needed. Mesrobian was subsequently employed as the chief architect of the restoration.

After the war, he returned to Constantinople in June 1919 and was immediately employed as the architect of the city administration of Istanbul.

Mesrobian was then transferred to the Russian front during the winter. The journey to the front was delayed by heavy snow. The deportations in his native town of Afyonkarahisar, where Mesrobian's family still resided, began on 15 August 1915. Mihran Mesrobian returned to Constantinople after the war and discovered that fifteen members of his family and relatives in Afyonkasarhisar were deported. With the allowance of Armenians immigrants into the United States reaching its limit, Mesrobian was given special permission to enter the country by the Secretary of Labor due to his expertise in architecture. The project also included another housing development near Woodley Park called the Cathedral Mansions off Connecticut Avenue. The hotel was eventually resold in 1953 to Sheraton Hotels, which renamed the hotel the Sheraton-Carlton Hotel.

Immediately after the success of the Carlton Hotel, Harry Wardman planned another hotel near the site where the 1885 homes of John Hay and Henry Adams once stood at 16th and H Streets NW. The building was done in an Italian Renaissance style and it featured Ionic, Doric, and Corinthian columns of the classical Greek era. Wardman was forced to sell the hotel in 1931, due to the Great Depression, to Washington Properties.

Mesrobian became an American citizen when he was naturalized in 1927. Nevertheless, Mesrobian continued designing for Wardman until his death in 1938. In 1940, Mesrobian designed the Glebe Center, also known as Glebe Shopping Center located in the Ballston neighborhood of Arlington County, Virginia. It is a one-story, L-shaped cinder-block building with a flat parapet roof and clad in a six-course, American-bond brick veneer with cast-stone decorative accents. It features large store-front windows, Art Deco decorative elements, and a central square tower surmounted by a glass-block clerestory capped by a pyramidal-shaped metal roof. It was built to serve the residents of the Buckingham apartment complex and Ashton Heights, as well as the many motorists traveling along Arlington Boulevard and North Glebe Road. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.

In 1943, Mesrobian designed the Wakefield Manor, a garden apartment complex located at 1215 N. Courthouse Road in Arlington. The design of the building incorporates an art-deco and moderne style and was built under standards promoted by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). Though Mesrobian was the architect behind the apartment, he held its ownership. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on 15 December 1997. The Calvert Manor also was awarded the Arlington County Preservation Design Award in 2002. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. The restoration included a new design for the sanctuary of the church.

Mihran Mesrobian died on 21 September 1975 at the age of eighty-six in Chevy Chase, Maryland and is buried at the Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington D.C.

Awards and decorations

Selected works The Carlton Hotel (now The St. Regis Washington, D.C.), 1926 Hay–Adams Hotel, Washington, D.C., 1927 Wardman Tower (now a wing of the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel), 1928 Dupont Circle Building, Washington, D.C., 1931 Sedgwick Gardens, Washington, D.C., 1931 Glebe Center, Arlington, Virginia, 1940 Wakefield Manor, Arlington, Virginia, 1943 Calvert Manor, Arlington, Virginia, 1948 Lee Gardens North, Arlington, Virginia, 1949–1950

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