The growing sense of East Capitol Street's monumental character during the 1880s, a result of its great width and the deep “parking,” or front gardens (actually city rights of way) of its houses, was expressed by increased building heights. Two sets of anonymous undated row houses in the 500 and 600 blocks demonstrate how imposing sheer size and repetition of elements can be. Tautly stretched brick walls are merely overlaid with cast-iron and wood stock parts, perhaps ordered from the catalogs of ironmongers in Baltimore or New York.