Pretty much everyone in D.C. knows of the Cairo apartment building in the Dupont area, on 17th and Q. The tallest residential building in the city, it was responsible for the height laws now in place.

The 164 feet tall, 12 story brick building, designed by Thomas Franklin Schneider, was completed in 1894. The Cairo, with its Egyptian theme featuring Moorish and Romanesque Revival features, gargoyles, winged griffins, elephant heads, and dragons, is really a unique structure in D.C.

At its opening in 1894, local residents dubbed the building “Schneider’s Folly” because of its height and successfully lobbied Congress to limit the height of residential buildings in the city with the 1899 Heights of Buildings Act.

Around 1900, the building became a hotel, with guests including F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Edison. In 1905, the Cairo was the center of a murder mystery when painter J. Frank Hanby fell to his death when the ropes supporting him broke. The ropes were found possibly to have been cut by acid.

The building became a center of society gatherings, and parties featuring 500 canaries singing beneath the chandeliers in the grand ballroom was not unusual.

The Cairo has been the scene of a few devastating fires, including one in 1958 that lead to $25,000 worth of damage, but no structural problems. In the 1960s, along with the surrounding neighborhood, the Cairo lost its glamor. It was inhabited by squatters, prostitutes, addicts, and student protesters.

In 1966, the D.C. Department of Health considered leasing the run-down building for use as a rehabilitation center for alcoholics. After a series of failed attempts at renovation, the building was restored in 1974 and converted into condominiums in 1979.

Still a condo building, the Cairo still looms large over Dupont Circle, with beautiful expansive views and its quirky architecture detailing.