If we look back at this history of civilization, very few cities have become synonymous to power itself. Rome and may be to some extent Berlin during WWII. Britishers, despite reaching all the way to Tristan da Cunha, never fetched the same stature for London. But there is one city whose influence on global events stays unmatched in the annals of history and that is Washington DC, capital of the United States of America.
Quite a statement to be made for a city that didn’t even exist 250 years ago. Handpicked by George Washington on July 16, 1790, District of Columbia came into existence on the banks of river Potomac, to act as the capital of the Union of New World colonies.
Washington DC has witnessed a lot of history. A civil war, two world wars and several others since, even though none of them were ratified by Congress. Several bills, amendments, executive orders have been documented and carefully archived in the annals of modern history. Writing another article on the political history of DC will be another drop in the ocean.
But beyond the political arenas and Smithsonian museums, DC offers a fascinating study of architecture from all ages. And every arch and column of those buildings tells a controversial story of the aberrations of the rich and powerful of the capital city. What I explored on my visit in June 2024 was these wonderful stories and buildings.
The journey began at DuPoint Circle and the background story of how during the Gilded Age, DC became the holiday home of affluent families from all over the country. What is called Embassy Row now used to be Millionaire row back then and was the venue to the most flamboyant gatherings each summer. An obvious question is who is this General DuPoint, immortalized in stone in the center of the park? Well his contribution is not so much raising the stature of the Union but more about raising the property prices of the Millionaire Row, with his illustrious family name.
On the corner of the DuPoint circle stands a beautiful red brick house called the Blaine Mansion built in Victorian influenced Queen Anne Revival architecture style by noted architect John Fraser. Named after its original owner James Blaine, the Secretary of State in the Garfield administration, this house was built in 1882 and is one of the last remaining vestiges of Gilded age. The most popular owner of this house was George Westinghouse. Westinghouse’s story is special as he was the one person who stood beside Nikola Tesla in his fight against Thomas Edison’s unscrupulous business practices. Had it not been for Westinghouse’s investment in Tesla’s idea of safer and cheaper Alternating Current, electricity will also be the privilege of the 1%.
The next in the row is the Walsh-Mclean house, now home of the Indonesian Embassy. Built in 1903 in Renaissance-Baroque revival style, this house has a beautiful in and out facade with masonry by Irish craftsmen using Roman Brick. It was built by Irish-born Thomas F. Walsh, one of the beneficiaries of the Gold Rush. The house was gifted to his daughter Evalyn who was married to Edward B. McLean, founder of the Washington Post. But that is not the only claim to fame of Evalyn. Her prized possessions consisted of the cursed but gorgeous Hope Diamond which she bought from Pierre Cartier himself for $180,000 (5.8 million today).
Moving on to the 50 room Palladian style mansion built in 1905 for American diplomat Lars Anderson, at a cost of $750,000 and was declared as a “Florentine villa in the midst of American independence”. This whopping amount makes sense when you go through the guest list of Andersons during the Washington social season — Presidents William H. Taft and Calvin Coolidge, Gen. John J. Pershing, Henry A. du Pont, and members of the Vanderbilt family. When Larz Anderson died in 1937 with no children, his widow oversaw the gift of Anderson House and its contents to the Society of the Cincinnati, of which Larz had been a devoted member. This society was named after Cincinatus, the great Roman general who saved Rome in the hour of need and despite the popularity and influence, gave up everything and retired on his farm. Sounds familiar? Yes, George Washington modeled his life after this great Roman and founded this extremely exclusive society, open only to people who can trace their lineage to the original officers of the revolutionary war.
A few blocks walk away is Embassy of Latvija — a Spanish revival building reminding you of those California old town houses with their bell cutouts. The owner of this mansion was Alice Pike Barney whose patron was none other than Oscar Wilde who convinced her to start her own salon on Avenue Victor Hugo in 1889. The biggest controversy associated with Alice is about her daughter Natalie who wrote a lesbian erotica in Paris and got instantly banned in puritan America of the early 1900s. Her father Edward Barney drank his way to death when Alice moved here but instead of hiding the controversy, she put a naked statue of her daughter in the garden which cops instructed to cover with a sheet. They say the statue may exist somewhere in the backyard of this embassy.
The most beautiful mansion in this neighborhood is the Christian Hague House, built for Norway’s first minister to the US after Norway achieved independence from Sweden. Hauge never lived in the house, nor saw it completed due to his premature death. But his family lived in the house until 1927 after which it was sold, first to the Czechoslovak Republic for their embassy and then in 1972 to the Republic of Cameroon. A little known French former colony didn’t have the money to restore the building when it accidentally burnt down in 2014 becoming an eye-sore for the city officials who are still responsible for the facade of these chunks of “foreign soil” in the city. The story goes that an affluent footballer who traced his roots to Cameroon visited DC and donated a large sum for restoration later thus ending the tussle between the Republic of Cameroon and city officials of Washington DC.
Finally we reached President Woodrow Wilson’s house, built in classic Georgian style, very emblematic of 19th century America. The story of this aberration is worthy of the station of the President of the United States. It is said that before the passing of the Volstead Act in 1919, Wilson stocked alcohol in White House but as the law prohibited transportation of alcohol, the President passed an executive order at the end of the tenure legalizing transporting of alcohol from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to 2340 S St NW, the address of this very house.
I can keep going. How Lincoln memorial was initially envisioned to be a pyramid or how Brained Warner convinced Andrew Carnegie to donate $250,000 for Washington Public Library but picked such an elaborate Beaux-Art design that the cost exceeded Carnegie’s pledge by $100, 000.
My favorite story of all though is the one concerning the city’s most symbolic monument — The Washington Memorial. I always wondered why the newly independent nation with a love for ancient arts chose a bland obelisk to honor the father of the nation. Turns out there is a backstory. In 1836, 29 year old architect Robert Mills won the design contest for Washington memorial. His original sketch, there was a giant Egyptian obelisk to be encircled at its base by a neoclassical temple with 30 towering columns. On top of the circular temple was a statue of Washington on a chariot, and in between each of the 30 columns stood the statues of 30 different revolutionary war heroes. The National Park Service calls Mills’ original plan “audacious, ambitious and expensive” and scrapped everything but the Obelisk.
It is said that the American founding fathers, including George Washington, hoped their capital city would become — a grand, modern city to rival European capitals, but with a patriotic identity and a sense of history that would make it distinctly American. In my opinion, these fun stories of rebellion and indulgence represent freedom of expression and indeed give Washington DC, that unique American identity.
Really like the evolution in your writing.
Loved the reference of Tristan Da Cunha.
Helpful article as I am planning a trip to DC this month. Thank you