The other day I was looking through James Goode’s “Capital Losses” book, the section on Residential Homes. We mourn these losses, including what were arguably the two greatest -- the palatial Van Ness mansion a few blocks west of the President's House, and Daniel Carroll’s Duddington Manor Home (F and 2nd, S.E.) Closer to our heart were Belvoir, West Grove and the Addison plantation home on Oxon Hill.
On the other hand, these losses make us cherish the ones that have survived, and whittle down the field so to speak.
History is a serious business, but it does not mean one cannot have a little fun. Here then, is our ranking of the Top Ten Historic Houses in the Washington region. We can’t say we have been to all of the ones in the DMV, but we have visited the ones below and a good number of others.
Anyway, here we go.
Note: My visits to these historic homes are not all recent ones. Staff and interpretation change.
All photos are from my visits.
1. Mount Vernon
Whew, number one sure is easy. Visited by about a million people each year, and the staff at Mount Vernon has not rested on their laurels. Although across the country there is much work to do in terms of interpreting the enslaved humans history, Mount Vernon has certainly turned a corner and has shown leadership this way.
2. Cedar Hill
Southeast DC sometimes gets shut out from lists, but not so here. In addition to all the great things he accomplished in his lifetime — self-emancipator, abolitionist, Civil Rights activists, orator, author, publisher - Frederick Douglass was the most photographed individual in the nineteenth century. The bicentennial of his birth last year brought needed attention to this greatest of Americans. The views from the hilltop are also a treat and one can get in some good hill work walking up to the crown of the hill. The Park Service presence is great, where events are held.
3. Tudor Place
After George and Martha passed away, their story was carried on by Martha’s four grandchildren. Woodlawn (Eleanor Parke Custis), Arlington House (George Washington Parke Custis), Tudor Place (Martha Parke Custis) and the homes of Thomas Law and Eliza Park Custis all played a role. Martha and Thomas Peter’s Tudor Place had it all - architect (William Thornton), the cachet of Georgetown, and their friends who were among the inner circle of early Washington society. Martha was not only a member of one of the First Families of Virginia, she might also be considered a member of one of the First Families of Washington.
The Custis kids lost some steam after the Federalist party members lost theirs, but family name and opulence carried the day, and Thomas Peter was highly respected, too.
This architectural gem was owned and lovingly cared for by the Peter family for many years, and holds fine pieces, portraits, and archives. The 2016 publication of “Tudor Place, America’s Story Lives Here,” while lacking in coverage of the Custis family enslaved humans who toiled in bondage and made up a significant part of their wealth, is a masterpiece.
4. Hillwood
These folks sure do advertise a lot in The Washington Post. Of course, there's a good reason. Hillwood's mistress and the popular and generous philanthropist, Majorie Merriweather Post, filled it to the brim with decorative arts. Nestled in between Rock Creek Park and Cleveland Park, the landscaping and gardens are lovely. Some onsite parking and a cafe are a bonus. The house collection includes House of Romanov pieces, Faberge eggs, and eighteen and nineteenth-century French art. The grounds feature a circular rose garden; a French parterre, a crescent-shaped lawn; a Japanese-style garden, and a greenhouse for the orchids. If you haven’t yet, go see Marjorie.
5. Sewall-Belmont House
We’re not big fans of changing the name of a place. In this case, a thumbs up. Known previously as the Sewall House (1800–1929), Alva Belmont House (1929–1972), and the Sewall–Belmont House and Museum (1972–2016), this lovely house is now the Belmont–Paul Women's Equality National Monument.
Built in its first part in the early 1800s and home to the National Women’s Party since 1929, this corner spot brick dwelling near the Capitol will be front and center this year as it hosts events for the 100th anniversary of Women's Suffrage.
The architectural style is a mixture, but the house stands gracefully in a sea of overbearing limestone governmental buildings with its attractive brick, mansard roof and fanlight.
6. Arlington House
Interpreting a historic house is a huge challenge, and will be so as we go forward with the ever-pressing need to learn more about the untold sagas of enslaved humans. Arlington House, which will reopen this spring, is certainly grappling with this.
There are several major components to its history. On land his father, John Parke Custis, owned and bequeathed to him, George Washington Parke Custis build this Greek Revival dwelling not only as his country seat and modest farm, but also as a monument and museum for the step grandfather who helped raise him. His holdings included portraits of the Custis forebears such as John Custis IV of Williamsburg and Daniel Parke II of Queen's Creek plantation. His daughter Mary married Robert E. Lee, connecting the two famous families in a big way. The Custis enslaved humans, many of whom were dower slaves and could not be freed, were finally freed during the Civil War and Union Army occupation. They and other African Americans built communities nearby. Arlington Cemetery wrote a new chapter for the land which was symbolically linked to the Memorial Bridge. It all adds up to something difficult to grasp and tell, but very compelling. The view of Washington is worth the visit alone and like Cedar Hill, great hill work. And don't forget to pay your respects to Pierre L'Enfant, who had a little something to do with where some of these homes were built.
7. Surratt House
With their creaky floors, musty smells, dim lighting, time period pieces, and learned interpreters, historic homes are the closest thing we have to time travel. As hard as they try, some places can’t quite capture the visitors attention this way. This place does, even if some of it is a little creepy. A highlight of the tour is the "hiding of the guns," if you will. On March 17, Herold, Atzerodt and Mary’s son John arrived at the tavern and hid two Spencer repeating carbines. John Wilkes Booth and Herold, one of his co-conspirators, made a quick stop here around midnight on the night of April 15, 1865. They took one of the guns, and left one behind.
Some say Mary Surratt’s capital punishment was wrong, but on the afternoon of July 7, 1865, she was publicly hanged beside Herold, Powell, and Atzerodt. Surratt was the first woman ever to be executed by the United States government. A bonus here is a marker showing Booth's escape route.
8. Carlyle House
I risk being called "homer" on this one, but this Palladian stone beauty stands out in several ways. Completed in 1753 in the Georgian style, John Carlyle's mansion is one of the oldest homes in the DMV. Carlyle, one of Alexandria's first trustees, had the audacity (and power) to break the city ordinance that required homes on 1/2 acre lots to be built close to the street. Among the eleven original trustees of the seaport, a majority were tobacco planters. Carlyle tells the story of a merchant. His mansion perched on the edge of a bank overlooking the Potomac was put in mothballs in the 1850s when furniture maker James Green shoehorned a new hotel in front of it. It’s our guess the docents here enjoyed the ride that came with the short-lived PBS series,"Mercy Street," but surely they were also pleased to get back to normal with telling the story of General Braddock, the "Grandest Congress," and the Carlyle family history they know so well. The book, "Colonel John Carlyle, Gent" by James D. Munson," is wonderfully illustrated and authoritative.
Special events take place in the grassy front yard, pretty much the only one of its kind in Old Town. In the rear lies a quiet shady space with a lovely English garden. Recent historic marking is excellent and where else can the bored partner so quickly slip away and enjoy a bounty of bazaars?
9. Anderson House
More than any other city, Washington is a place with a history of power couples living in an impressive mansion home whose invitation lists included a unique combination of high-ranking politicians and government officials, and other A-listers who made up the elite party circuit.
For those of us who will never step inside the highest circles, we can get an idea of what it was like inside one of the homes. As one might guess, Anderson House is located on the famed Embassy Row on the edge of DuPont Circle. What it looses in not being all that old (completed in 1905), Anderson House makes up for in its Beaux-Arts style, interior holdings and the knowledge of those who rubbed shoulders here.
As detailed by Stephen T. Moskey ("Larz and Isabel Anderson: Wealth and Celebrity in the Gilded Age"), Larz and Isabel Anderson hosted hundreds of dinners, luncheons, and tea parties in their luxurious house. Their friends and guests included Henry and Clover Adams, Lord and Lady Curzon, Henry James, Robert Todd Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and John Singer Sargent. Larz earned fame as did, Isabel, who was active in the American Red Cross, the Daughters of the American Revolution and the National League of American Pen Women. She also wrote dozens of books and took long voyages around the world.
The Anderson House currently is hosting a terrific exhibition on the veterans of the Revolutionary War and their struggles to gain a pension. This is most appropriate, as the Society of the American Revolution calls the place home. Anderson House is active with talks and events and George Washington is always there to greet you.
10. Riversdale
Choosing number ten required some dental work, bending of neurons, fitful sleeps, and cleaning up hair loss. Before me was the rest of the field, an embarrassment of riches that includes the White House, Woodlawn, the Octagon House, the Heurich House, the Clara Barton House, Dumbarton, Sully, Riversdale, Mount Airy, the Freedom House and others. We also read the news that the Joshua Henson House could be ready to open as a museum this year.
We chose Riversdale for not only its impressive size and architecture ("one of the last of Maryland's great five-part Palladian mansions"), age (began in 1801), the immigration story it tells, its history as holder of “the most remarkable collection of Old World paintings in the country at the time,” and the valuable insight into early Washington that Rosalie Stier Calvert gave to the ages.
In 1794, Henri Joseph Stier (1743-1821), a wealthy Flemish financier and art collector, and his wife Marie (1748-1804), fled war-torn Belgium. In tow were their daughter Isabella and her husband Jean Michael (Baron) van Havre, their son Charles Jean and his first wife Mimi (sister of Jean Michael), and their 16-year-old daughter Rosalie.
Except for Rosalie, all of the Steirs returned to Belgium after the turn of the century. She and her husband finished the construction in 1807 and raised their children there.
Rosalie wrote over two hundred letters to her family back in Belgium. Dr. Alfons Bousse, an archivist in Belgium, discovered the letters in the 1970s. In 1992, Margaret Law Callcot wrote, “Mistress of Riversdale: The Plantation Letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert, 1795-1821.” The author notes these letters “provided an uncommonly readable account of America’s early history.” Her book has been praised.
Rosalie was very observant of life in Washington and not afraid to avoid sugarcoating. As the wife of a Calvert who was related by marriage to the Custis family, she stood within the inner circle, but not in the middle of it. From this vantage, she could afford to criticize in ways the others could not.
Rosalie's letters and Callcot’s footnotes are the kind of source material that can elevate an historic home from something good to something great. Let's hope the future holds more such discoveries.
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