Historic Houses
Washington D.C. is a terrific city for visiting historic homes that have been wonderfully preserved. Because so many of them were the sites of historic events, such as the Petersen House, they have been left almost unchanged since the event that made them a piece of living history.
The Petersen House
Lincoln died in a first-floor back bedroom of the home of William Petersen, a tailor. Doctors knew immediately after he was shot that the head wound was mortal, and they did not dare move him to the Civil War hospital less than two blocks away.
The bed Lincoln was laid in was too short for him, and he lay sideways for part of the night until the end piece was sawed off so his feet could hang out. Blood from his head injury is said to have soaked through seven pillows. It's said that a psychic who visited the room claimed she could see a mist rising from one of the bloodsoaked pillows.
You can pay a visit to the Petersen House, which is now maintained by the National Park Service. It's accessible from the Metro Center station (Blue or Orange Line) or Gallery Place-Chinatown (Red, Yellow, or Green Line). And say hello to Miller the guard if he's on duty; you'll never forget him.
According to John Alexander's
The Dumbarton Oaks Estate and Gardens
Dumbarton Oaks was the site of an international conference that led to the creation of the United Nations in 1944. Today, the original Georgian mansion is the site of a museum of Byzantine art, and a newer addition designed by Philip Johnson houses a pre-Columbian art collection.
This Georgetown mansion sits on a sixteen-acre plot that features some of the most beautiful gardens in Washington D.C., which are open to the public in warm weather as part of the house tour. The historic music room, where the Dumbarton Oaks conversations took place, has a sixteenth-century stone fireplace as its focal point. It also features French tapestries on the walls and El Greco's Visitation.
Location and HoursThe mansion is located on 32nd Street NW, and is accessible by car, taxi, or bus (routes 30, 32, 34, 36, D2, D4, or M12). At this writing, the mansion and shop were closed for renovation and due to reopen in 2007. Check the Web site or call for updates. The garden remains open daily, except Monday, federal holidays, and Christmas Eve. Hours are March 15 through October, 2
The Hillwood Museum
This is the restored mansion of Post cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, who, with her ambassador-to-Russia husband, man-aged to buy up many of the Russian aristocracy's confiscated trinkets and jewels when the Communists were selling them for cash in the 1930s. She had a splendid collection of Faberge eggs and rare Russian books, as well as icons. There is also a lovely Japanese-style garden on the grounds. You will find a museum shop and a café on the premises.
Location and HoursLocated on Linnean Avenue NW, between Upton and Tilden Streets, the Hillwood Museum is accessible from the Van Ness Metro station (Red Line). Parking on the premises is also available.
If you're interested in feminist history, visit the Sewall-Belmont House, 144 Constitution Ave. NE, 202-546-1210. This feminist museum, library, and store — in the home of suffrage leader Alice Paul, founder of the National Woman's Party and drafter of the Equal Rights Amendment — is the oldest house on Capitol Hill, with some parts dating back to 1680.
The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10
The Woodrow Wilson House
The Wilson House is the only museum in Washington D.C. of a former president. After Wilson left the presidency, private groups of friends and benefactors bought him this Georgian Revival townhouse and a car to make sure that he lived the remainder of his years in comfort.
Wilson and his second wife, Edith, lived here from 1921 until his death in 1924. The house offers a wonderfully preserved glimpse into the 1920s, with an antique phone, Victrola, radio consoles, and even an early GE refrigerator. The parlor still holds wedding presents the couple received, such as a tapestry from the ambassador to France. Long after Wilson left the presidency, rules were passed to prevent presidents from taking official gifts and memorabilia from the White House, but the Wilson House is peppered with bits and pieces from his days in the White House, such as his White House desk chair and even presidential china.
Rumor has it that Wilson's ghost haunts the house, shuffling up and down stairs with the aid of his cane (which he used after a stroke), still disgruntled that his plans for the League of Nations did not come to fruition in his lifetime.
Special events at the Wilson House include a preservation garden party in May and a spot on the annual Kalorama House and Embassy Tour in September. There is a small gift shop on the premises that sells Wilson memorabilia, including replicas of the Wilson china pattern.
Location and HoursThe Woodrow Wilson House is located on S Street NW and is accessible from Dupont Circle (Red Line) Metro station. Hours of operation are Tuesday through Sunday from 10
The Decatur House
This red-brick Federal-style home was considered one of the first “decent” homes in the city when it was built in 1817. A War of 1812 naval hero and commodore, Stephen Decatur hired Benjamin Latrobe, who also contributed to the design of the U.S. Capitol, to design his home. It quickly became a gathering place for the city's upper crust until Commodore Decatur was killed in a duel only fourteen months after moving in.
His widow moved to Georgetown and quickly sold the house. Visitors are treated to a fascinating history of the building and its inhabitants; over the years it has been home to several foreign ministers, three secretaries of state (Henry Clay and Martin Van Buren were two), and many politicians.
Although only one Civil War battle took place in Washington D.C., it is amazing how much of the city's history, from the Arlington House and Arlington National Cemetery to Ford's Theatre and the Petersen House, was shaped by the Civil War years.
There is a large gift shop with an excellent selection of Americana and Victorian gifts. You may visit in time for one of the many scheduled special events, which include a showing of quilts with architectural themes in January and February; Mother's Day Open House in May; participation in the Federal City walking tour and Lafayette Square Open House in September, and a three-week-long nineteenth-century Christmas display in December.
Location and HoursLocated on the corner of Jackson Place and H Street in Lafayette Square, the Decatur House is accessible from Farragut West (Orange or Blue Line) or Farragut North (Red Line) Metro stations. Hours of operation are Tuesday through Saturday from 10
The Octagon Museum
One of the oldest houses in the city (finished in 1801), and the oldest museum in the United States devoted to architecture and design, the Octagon house was the temporary home of Dolley Madison and President Madison. They lived here while the White House was rebuilt after it burned down. The Madisons could watch the White House being constructed from the windows of this house; the children of its first occupants gave it its current name. Madison signed the Treaty of Ghent that ended the War of 1812 in the circular room at the circular desk on the second floor.
The Freedom Plaza is a national park that lies between the Ronald Reagan Building, the National Theatre, the Warner Theatre, and the J. W. Marriott Hotel near the Federal Triangle Metro station. The park is named after the freedom rally in which Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. In the summer, there are concerts and performances here.
The townhouse was designed by Dr. William Thornton, one of the many architects of the U.S. Capitol building. It was built for the wealthy Tayloe family, which included fifteen children, and their slaves. The house has a number of unique design features, such as a three-story oval staircase and hidden doors. The English basement features a working kitchen and the servants' quarters, which offer a glimpse of what life was like for servants during this time.
After the Tayloes moved out, the house became a girls' school and eventually became a boarding house, then a tenement. The museum is now run by the American Architectural Foundation, which houses its amazing collection and mounts changing exhibits about American architecture.
Location and HoursThe Octagon Museum is located on New York Avenue NW and is accessible from Farragut West Metro station (Orange or Blue Line). Hours of operation are Tuesday through Sunday from 10
The Heurich House
Even if you do not like meandering around old houses, the Heurich House is a one-of-a-kind experience and should not be missed. Eccentric beer magnate Christian Heurich (pronounced HI-rich), whose grandson has revived the family business and now offers a Foggy Bottom Ale on sale throughout the city, built it at the turn of the century.
The house, the most intact late-Victorian structure in the country, is a unique combination of German beer garden and ornate Victorian flourishes. From the outside it looks like a castle, with a tower and arched portico doorway and a handful of gargoyles and carved human heads and animals thrown in as design elements.
Inside, the Heurich House is crammed full of the carved wooden panels, wainscoting, and matching furniture that was popular with the nouveau riche of the time but that rarely survives today. The front parlor's ceiling is a painting of blue sky with angels of the seasons. The dining room is wall-to-ceiling carved oak and mahogany with matching fireplaces; carved wooden tables and chairs feature berries, fruit, and animals. The hallway is mauve with a stenciled gold fleur-de-lis-pattern. On the lower level, where the kitchen is, there is a tavern room where Heurich had eight German drinking mottoes painted as frescos on the walls, offering such wisdom as “There is room in the smallest chamber for the biggest hangover.”
Heurich had suffered two fires in his beer factories, so he ordered that his home be fireproof. As a result, this house on Dupont Circle is one of the first private residences in the country that used poured concrete as a foundation and is the first fireproof building in the city. Heurich was ahead of his time in many building innovations. His was one of the first homes to use electricity throughout the house (because of his fear of fire) as well as a “speaking tube” to communicate from one floor to the other and an electric bell system. He also used a coal-burning steam boiler to heat the house.
There's a small shop on the premises that sells old postcards of Washington D.C. and Victorian tea items and that features a section for children. You will also find a Victorian garden that is open to the public. During the holiday season, the house is done up with Victorian Christmas decorations.
Location and HoursThe Heurich House is located on the corner of 20th Street and New Hampshire Avenue NW. You can get there from the Dupont Circle Metro station (Red Line). The museum is raising money to save it from developers. It offers tours Wednesday through Sunday for $5 a person. This is a worthy cause.
Cedar Hill
This last home of Frederick Douglass — freed slave, author, civil and women's rights orator, and U.S. Marshall of the District of Columbia in 1877 — is far off the beaten track, but the tour is well worth it.
If you want to take a break from museums, take a stroll around Lincoln Park. Although the park honors Abraham Lincoln, the real draw here is the Emancipation Statue. This statue, which was built from funds raised by freed slaves, depicts Archer Alexander, the last slave captured under the Fugitive Slave Law, breaking the chains of slavery while President Lincoln reads the Emancipation Proclamation.
Frederick Douglass was the first African-American who was nationally renowned as a civil rights leader. After he escaped from slavery and purchased his freedom, he wrote and published his autobiography,
When he returned to the United States, he printed an abolitionist newspaper out of Rochester, New York, and oversaw the Rochester activities of the Underground Railroad. When he attended the first women's rights convention in 1848, he also became an ardent supporter of rights for women.
Douglass became a confidant to Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson regarding black suffrage, but he turned down Johnson's offer to be the head of the Freedman's Bureau. Instead, he became the first president of the Freedman's Bank, where he thought he could do more good.
He served the country as U.S. Marshall, recorder of deeds in Washington D.C., and the American consul-general to Haiti. When he died in 1895, thousands attended his funeral.
Starting with its role as a mecca for freed slaves during and after the Civil War, and continuing through this century as the site of many major civil rights demonstrations, Washington D.C. has one of the nation's most extensive groupings of sites of historic significance to African-Americans. However, most of them are scattered around the city.
Douglass bought Cedar Hill, a twenty-one-room mansion on a hill overlooking the Capitol, for $6,700 as a bankruptcy foreclosure and broke the neighborhood's “whites only” barrier. He moved into the house at the age of sixty, and walked the two miles to the Capitol every morning. He lived here with his first wife and five children for years. When she died, he married his white secretary, an act that many considered scandalous; in response, he said that his first wife had been the color of his mother and his second was the color of his father.
The house is furnished with the memories of a long career in public service. He was a close friend of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Abraham Lincoln, and Mrs. Lincoln had given him one of the president's canes. He had served as the U.S. Ambassador to Haiti, and a prized possession in the house is a leather rocking chair bestowed on him from the people of Haiti. He also had an extensive library and built himself a small brick house in the back of the property where he liked to work alone. Family members dubbed it “the Growlery” because he growled at anyone who bothered him there.
There is a short movie of Douglass's life, which is extremely well done, that plays in the visitors' center. There is also a gift shop that sells copies of his famous autobiography.
Location and HoursYou can reach Cedar Hill by taking the Metro to Anacostia (Green Line) and transferring to the B2 bus, which stops in front of the house. The house is open daily from 9
The Mary McLeod Bethune House
Every July 10, there is a birthday celebration at the Victorian residence of Mary McLeod Bethune. Bethune, one of seventeen children of freed slaves, advised Franklin Delano Roosevelt and three other presidents and created the National Council of Negro Women. She was also the founder of Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona, Florida. The visitors' center shows a twenty-five-minute film on Bethune's life. This is also the site of the National Archives for Black Women's History, which is open by appointment. There is a treasure hunt through the Council house for children.
Location and HoursYou can reach the Mary McLeod Bethune House from McPherson Square Metro station (Blue or Orange Line). Tours are available Monday through Saturday from 10
