The Benjamin Ogle Tayloe House is a Federal-stylehouse located at 21 Madison Place NW in Washington, D.C., in the United States. The house is on the northeast corner of Madison Place NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, directly across the street from the White House and the Treasury Building. Built in 1828 by Benjamin Ogle Tayloe, son of Colonel John Tayloe III (who built the famous Octagon House), the house became a salon for politically powerful people in the federal government.
Phoebe Tayloe inherited the house upon Tayloe's death in 1868. After she died in 1881, more than 200 marble statues, bronze sculptures, fine furniture, and paintings in the house were donated to the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Phoebe Warren Tayloe's niece, Elizabeth H. Price, inherited the house in 1882 and later sold it to Senator Don Cameron of Pennsylvania for $60,000 in 1887. In around 1896, the U.S. Senate passed legislation which would have made the building the official residence of the Vice President of the United States, but the House of Representatives failed to act on the bill. Cameron leased the house to Vice PresidentGarret Hobart from March 1897 until the fall of 1899 and the press and public nicknamed the house the "Historic Corner" and the "Cream White House" for the large number of politically important visitors and meetings held on the premises, with esteemed guests such as the International Boundary Commission and Prince Albert of Belgium. Hobart's failing health led the family to leave the Tayloe House in the fall of 1899 and Cameron then leased the home to RepublicanSenatorMark Hanna from January 1900 to 1902. Hanna's important political discussions of the moment with William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt over substantial breakfasts of corned beef hash and pancakes became famous.
The Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage leased the house in the fall of 1915, and made the building its headquarters for two years. The Cosmos Club had considered purchasing the house from the Tayloe family in 1885 and eventually bought it in December 1917. They vacated it in 1952 to move to their new headquarters; the building was purchased by the U.S. government and used for offices. From October 1958 until November 1961, the house was the headquarters of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Nearly razed to the ground in 1960 along with other buildings on Lafayette Square, successful lobbying and support from the newly elected Kennedy administration in 1961 led to the original proposals to gut the building being dropped. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy was instrumental in persuading architect John Carl Warnecke, a friend of her husband, to create a design that would incorporate the new buildings with the old, based on the architectural theory of contextualism. The Cutts-Madison House, Cosmos Club building, and Benjamin Ogle Tayloe House were joined, and a courtyard built between them and the National Courts building. The building has remained part of the National Courts Building complex ever since, and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Construction
Front view
Benjamin Ogle Tayloe married Julia Maria Dickinson on November 8, 1824.[4] Although Tayloe preferred to live at Windsor, his estate in King George County, Virginia, his wife asked that they move into the city, where she was more comfortable.[5] The house was constructed on Lots 10 and 11 in Square 221.[6] At the time of the building's construction in 1828,[7] the expanse of the city from 15th Street NW (one block east of the home) to 17th Street NW from the White House north to H Street NW was a flat field bare of trees and shrubs.[8]
As originally built, the Federal-style[9] house had three stories.[10] The completed house had four or five parlors.[11] It was built of unpainted, cream-colored brick.[12] The entrance was level with the ground, with an oriel window above it on the second floor and a Palladian window on the third floor above that.[13] An oval portico protected visitors arriving at the front doors.[12]
Tayloe years
The house was completed in 1828, but not immediately occupied. Tayloe had a strong political disagreement with the newly elected President, Andrew Jackson, and refused to move into the home.[5] Tayloe leased the building to Thomas Swann, Sr., a lawyer (and the father of Thomas Swann, Jr., who became Governor of Maryland in 1866).[14] Swann vacated the home in November 1829, at which time Tayloe and his wife occupied it.[5] The house was an important social gathering place for important Washingtonians in the four decades following its construction.[10][15] In 1829, when Henry Clay left the office of Secretary of State, much of the furniture in his home was acquired by the Tayloes and used to decorate their home.[16] Tayloe House was the last house in Washington visited by President William Henry Harrison before his death in 1841.[17][18]
Julia Tayloe died on July 4, 1846.[19] Tayloe married Phoebe Warren on April 17, 1849.[20]
The House was the scene of a murder in 1859. Philip Barton Key II was the son of Francis Scott Key and the nephew of Chief JusticeRoger B. Taney.[21] In the spring of 1858, Key began having an affair with Teresa Bagioli Sickles, the wife of his friend Daniel Sickles.[22] On February 26, 1859, Sickles learned of the affair.[23] The following day, he saw Key in Lafayette Square signalling to his wife.[23] Sickles rushed out into the park, drew a single pistol, and shot the unarmed Key three times while the other man pleaded for his life.[23] Key was taken into the nearby Tayloe House and died moments later.[20] Key's spirit, eyewitnesses and authors claim, now haunts Lafayette Square and can be seen on dark nights near the spot where he was shot.[24]
Benjamin Ogle Tayloe died on February 28, 1868,[28] and Phoebe Tayloe inherited the house.[29] After she died in 1881, more than 200 marble statues, bronze sculptures, items of fine furniture, and paintings in the house were donated to the Corcoran Gallery of Art.[30] Phoebe Warren Tayloe's niece, Elizabeth H. Price, inherited the house in 1882.[31]
In April 1885, the Cosmos Club considered purchasing the house from the Tayloe family. The influential club already owned most of the block north of the Tayloe House, and was expanding rapidly. It valued the home at $60,000 and the furnishings at an additional $5,000.[32] The Cosmos Club declined to buy the home after an investigation found that the cost of upgrading the Tayloe property for its use would be too costly.[33]
Cameron years
Senator Don Cameron of Pennsylvania purchased the Benjamin Ogle Tayloe House for $60,000 in 1887,[34] and resided there for a time.[29] Cameron expanded the home significantly, almost entirely rebuilding its interior.[35] After the renovation, the front entrance opened onto a square entrance hall.[36] A fireplace adorned the hall.[36] Large rooms on either side of the entrance hall were used as office space.[13] A broad staircase led from the entrance hall up to the second floor, where there were four large rooms.[36] The rooms opened on to one another, permitting the second floor to be opened up into something approaching a single large ballroom.[13] The windows on the second floor reached to the floor.[13] An iron veranda ran around the entire second floor.[34] The home contained a total of 30 rooms after the renovation.[34] Cameron did not, however, renovate the exterior, which remained much the same as it always had.[37]Henry Adams was a frequent guest of the Camerons, playing often with their daughter Martha to alleviate his bouts of depression.[38]
About 1896, the U.S. Senate passed legislation which would have made the building the official residence of the Vice President of the United States, but the House of Representatives failed to act on the bill.[35]
The Tayloe House in 1886, the year before Sen. Don Cameron purchased it
Cameron leased the house to Vice PresidentGarret Hobart from March 1897 until the fall of 1899.[39] No other Vice President had ever lived so close to the White House,[40] and this close proximity helped boost Hobart's access to and influence with the President so much that he was called "Assistant President" and is now considered one of the most powerful Vice Presidents in U.S. history.[41] On several occasions Hobart entertained the entire U.S. Senate at the house, as well as President William McKinley.[42] The International Boundary Commission (which established much of the water and land boundary between the U.S. and Canada) dined in the house at a formal dinner hosted by Hobart, as did Prince Albert of Belgium.[43] The press and public nicknamed the house the "Historic Corner" and the "Cream White House" (a reference to the color of its brickwork) for the large number of politically important visitors and meetings held on the premises during Hobart's tenure there.[44] Hobart's failing health led the family to leave the Tayloe House in the fall of 1899 and return to New Jersey (where Hobart died on November 21).[39]
Cameron then leased the home to Senator Mark Hanna from January 1900 to 1902.[45] Hanna developed his plans for the re-election of President McKinley while resident in the house, plans which gave rise to the first "big money" presidential election in U.S. history.[46] The home was also host to Hanna's famous large breakfasts of corned beef hash and pancakes, over which the most important political decisions of the moment would be made.[47] These meals were so politically important that President Theodore Roosevelt breakfasted with Hanna every Sunday.[47] McKinley and other politically powerful people visited the home so much that it became known as the "Little White House."[15][26][46] It was at just such a breakfast on March 10, 1902, that J. P. Morgan asked Senator Hanna whether the United States government had any intention of filing an antitrust lawsuit against the recently formed Northern Securities Company.[48][49] Hanna said the government would not file suit against the trust.[50] When the government filed suit hours later, Morgan accused Hanna of betraying him, and Hanna accused Roosevelt of betraying him.[48] Hanna died in office on February 15, 1904.
The Tayloe House with the Markey National Courts Building to the right and background
The Cosmos Club finally purchased the house on December 1, 1917.[51][52] It used the home as its women's annex, and converted the stables into a meeting hall.[51]
The Cosmos Club vacated the Tayloe House in 1952 to move to new headquarters in the Townsend Mansion at 2121 Massachusetts Avenue NW,[53] at which time the building was purchased by the U.S. government and used for offices.[54][55] From October 1958 until November 1961, the headquarters of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) were in the Tayloe House.[56]T. Keith Glennan, the first Administrator of NASA, also had his office in the structure.[56]
In 1960, the Tayloe House was nearly razed. The impetus for tearing down nearly all the historic structures on Lafayette Square began 60 years before. In 1900, the United States Congress passed a resolution establishing the U.S. Senate Park Commission (also known as the "McMillan Commission" because it was chaired by Michigan's RepublicanSenatorJames McMillan).[57] The Park Commission's charge was to reconcile competing visions for the development of Washington, D.C., and in particular the National Mall and adjacent areas.[57] The Park Commission's proposals, which came to be known as the "McMillan Plan," proposed that all the buildings around Lafayette Square be razed and replaced by tall, Neoclassical buildings clad in white marble for use by executive branch agencies.[58] For a time, it appeared that the Cutts-Madison House would not survive. William Wilson Corcoran's Corcoran House at 1615 H Street NW was torn down in 1922 and replaced with the Neoclassical United States Chamber of Commerce headquarters.[59] The Hay-Adams Houses were razed in 1927 by real estate developerHarry Wardman, and the Hay–Adams Hotel built on the site.[60] At nearby 1616 H Street NW, the Brookings Institution purchased the rear garden from the private owners of the Decatur House and built an eight-story Modernist office building there.[61] Several million dollars were spent in the late 1950s on designs to raze all the buildings on the east side of Lafayette Square and replace them with a white, modernist office building which would house judicial offices.[62]
Opposition to the demolition of the Tayloe House and other buildings on Lafayette Square began forming shortly after the plan to raze the structures was announced. Senators James E. Murray and Wayne Morse, several members of the House of Representatives, and citizens of the District of Columbia lobbied to defeat the legislation authorizing the demolition of the buildings.[63] The American Institute of Architects (AIA) devoted the February 1961 issue of its journal to a "Lament for Lafayette Square."[64] The AIA established a committee to develop plans to save the buildings and adapt the new structures so that they incorporated the style and feel of the older homes.[65]
The newly elected Kennedy administration indicated on February 16, 1961, that it was anxious to retain the existing historic homes on Lafayette Square.[66] In November, the Committee of 100 on the Federal City (an influential group of city leaders) asked President Kennedy to save and restore all the remaining buildings on Lafayette Square.[67] In February 1962, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy lobbied General Services Administration (GSA) director Bernard L. Boutin to stop the demolition and adopt a different design plan.[68] "The wreckers haven't started yet, and until they do it can be saved," she wrote.[69] Mrs. Kennedy enlisted architect John Carl Warnecke, a friend of her husband's who happened to be in town that weekend,[70] to create a design which would incorporate the new buildings with the old.[71] Warnecke conceived the basic design over that weekend,[71] and worked closely with Mrs. Kennedy over the next few months to formalize the design proposal.[72] The design was presented to the public and the Commission of Fine Arts (which had approval over any plan) in October 1962, and with Mrs. Kennedy's backing the Commission adopted the revised Warnecke design proposal.[73]
Warnecke's design for the square was based on the architectural theory of contextualism.[74] Not only did Warnecke's design build the first modern buildings on Lafayette Square, but they were the first buildings in the city to utilize contextualism as a design philosophy.[74] Warnecke's design for the Markey National Courts Building was to create tall, flat structures in red brick which would serve as relatively unobtrusive backgrounds to the lighter-colored residential homes like the Cutts-Madison House.[74] The Cutts-Madison House, Cosmos Club building, and Benjamin Ogle Tayloe House were joined, and a courtyard built between them and the National Courts Building.[74]
The Tayloe House has remained part of the National Courts building complex ever since.
↑ At least one source claims that President Harrison contracted the illness that eventually killed him while walking through the slush to the Tayloe house to offer Tayloe's brother employment in the federal civil service. See: Bowers, The Party Battles of the Jackson Period, 1922, p. 14.
↑ At least one source incorrectly places the relocation of the Cosmos Club from the Cutts-Madison House in 1939. See: Bednar, L'Enfant's Legacy: Public Open Spaces in Washington, 2006, p. 105.
1 2 Suckow, "Hidden Headquarters," National Aeronautics and Space Administration, March 24, 2009.
↑ Lindsay, "Court Gets New Home All to Itself," Washington Post, February 25, 1960; "2 Federal Courts To Be Housed on Lafayette Square," Washington Post, September 17, 1960.
↑ "3 Historic Buildings Befriended," Washington Post, March 2, 1960; "Senator Morse Joins Battle to Save Historic Sites on Lafayette Square," Washington Post, March 24, 1960; "Lafayette Sq. Razing Plan Termed Folly," Washington Post, April 12, 1960; "Group Formed to Save Lafayette Sq. Buildings," Washington Post, May 4, 1960.
↑ "AIA Journal Laments Lafayette Square's End," Washington Post, January 29, 1961.
↑ White, "Garden Atmosphere of Lafayette Sq. Can Be Preserved, Says Architect," Washington Post, March 3, 1961.
↑ White, "Administration Anxious To Save Lafayette Park," Washington Post, February 17, 1961.
↑ Jackson, "Old Lafayette Sq. Restoration Sought," Washington Post, November 30, 1961.
↑ Anthony, 2001, p. 43; Anthony, 2003, pp. 144–147.
Adams, Katherine H. and Keene, Michael L. Alice Paul and the American Suffrage Campaign. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 2008.
"AIA Journal Laments Lafayette Square's End." Washington Post. January 29, 1961.
Anthony, Carl Sferrazza. As We Remember Her: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in the Words of Her Family and Friends. Reprint ed. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.
Anthony, Kathryn H. Designing for Diversity: Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in the Architectural Profession. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 2001.
Apkarian-Russell, Pamela. Washington's Haunted Past: Capital Ghosts of America. Charleston, S.C.: The History Press, 2006.
Cohen, Daniel. Civil War Ghosts. New York: Scholastic Inc., 1999.
Cramer, James P. and Yankopolus, Jennifer Evans. Almanac of Architecture & Design, 2005. Atlanta, Ga.: Greenway Group, 2005.
Cullen, Jim. Imperfect Presidents: Tales of Misadventure and Triumph. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-Clio, 2009.
Evelyn, Douglas E.; Dickson, Paul; and Ackerman, S.J. On This Spot: Pinpointing the Past in Washington, D.C. Sterling, Va.: Capital Books, 2008.
Federal Writers' Project. Washington, D.C.: A Guide to the Nation's Capital. Washington, D.C.: Federal Writers' Project, 1942.
Fishback, Frederick L. "Chronicler's Report for 1917." Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 1918.
Gallagher, Gary W.Three Days at Gettysburg: Essays on Confederate and Union Leadership. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1999.
Gillmore, Inez Haynes. The Story of the Woman's Party. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1921.
Goidel, Robert K.; Gross, Donald A.; Shields, Todd G. Money Matters: Consequences of Campaign Finance Reform in U.S. House Elections. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999.
Goode, James M. Capital Losses: A Cultural History of Washington's Destroyed Buildings. 2d ed. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 2003.
"Group Formed to Save Lafayette Sq. Buildings." Washington Post. May 4, 1960.
Hunter, Marjorie. "Old Homes Saved By Mrs. Kennedy." New York Times. September 27, 1962.
Jackson, Luther P. "Old Lafayette Sq. Restoration Sought." Washington Post. November 30, 1961.
Richardson, Anna Steese. Standard Etiquette. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1925.
Rorabaugh, W.J.; Critchlow, Donald T.; and Baker, Paula C. America's Promise: A Concise History of the United States. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004.
Samuels, Ernest. Henry Adams. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1989.
Garret Augustus Hobart was an American politician and businessman who was the 24th vice president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his death in 1899, under President William McKinley. A member of the Republican Party, Hobart was an influential New Jersey businessman, politician, and political operative prior to his vice presidency.
The Willard InterContinental Washington, commonly known as the Willard Hotel, is a historic luxury Beaux-Arts hotel located at 1401 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Downtown Washington, D.C. It is currently a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Among its facilities are numerous luxurious guest rooms, several restaurants, the famed Round Robin Bar, the Peacock Alley series of luxury shops, and voluminous function rooms. Owned jointly by Carr Companies and InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, it is two blocks east of the White House, and two blocks west of the Metro Center station of the Washington Metro.
St. John's Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square is a historic Episcopal church located at Sixteenth Street and H Street NW, in Washington, D.C., along Black Lives Matter Plaza. The Greek Revival building, designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, is adjacent to Lafayette Square, one block from the White House. It is often called the "Church of the Presidents".
Petworth is a neighborhood of Washington, D.C., located in Northwest D.C. While largely residential, Petworth is home to a notable commercial corridor of shops and restaurants, primarily along Georgia Avenue and Upshur Street, as well as a portion of 14th Street. The neighborhood is accessible via the Georgia Ave–Petworth station on the Green Line of the Washington Metro.
The Cosmos Club is a 501(c)(7) private social club in Washington, D.C., that was founded by John Wesley Powell in 1878 as a gentlemen's club for those interested in science. Among its stated goals is, "The advancement of its members in science, literature, and art and also their mutual improvement by social intercourse."
The Hay–Adams is an historic luxury hotel opened in 1928, located at 800 16th Street NW in Washington, D.C. It south-fronts on Lafayette Square across from the White House. It sits on the former site of connected 19th-century mansions, which were owned by two influential friends, John Hay and Henry Adams, which led to the hotel's naming.
Waddy Butler Wood was an American architect of the early 20th century and resident of Washington, D.C. Although Wood designed and remodeled numerous private residences, his reputation rested primarily on his larger commissions, such as banks, commercial offices, and government buildings. His most notable works include the Woodrow Wilson House and the Main Interior Building.
The Octagon House, also known as the Colonel John Tayloe III House, is a house located at 1799 New York Avenue, Northwest in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It was built in 1799 for John Tayloe III, the wealthiest planter in the country, at the behest of his new family member, George Washington. In September 1814, after British forces burnt the White House during the War of 1812, for six months the Octagon House served as the residence of United States president James Madison and first lady Dolley Madison. It is one of only five houses to serve as the presidential residence in the history of the United States of America, and one of only three, along with the White House and Blair House, that still stand.
The McMillan Plan is a comprehensive planning document for the development of the monumental core and the park system of Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was written in 1902 by the Senate Park Commission. The commission is popularly known as the McMillan Commission after its chairman, Senator James McMillan of Michigan.
The Lafayette Square Historic District is a National Historic Landmark District in Washington, D.C., encompassing a portion of the original L'Enfant Plan for the city's core. It includes the 7-acre (2.8 ha) Lafayette Square portion of President's Park, all of the buildings facing it except the White House, and the buildings flanking the White House to the east and west. The district was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970.
John Carl Warnecke was an architect based in who designed numerous monuments and structures in the Modernist, Bauhaus, and other similar styles. He was an early proponent of contextual architecture. Among his more notable buildings and projects are the Hawaii State Capitol building, the John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame memorial gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery, and the master plan for Lafayette Square.
Madison Place is a one-block street located in northwest Washington, D.C., across from the White House. It forms the eastern border of Lafayette Square between Pennsylvania Avenue and H Street NW. Buildings on Madison Place include the Howard T. Markey National Courts Building, the Benjamin Ogle Tayloe House, the Cutts-Madison House, and the Freedman's Bank Building. The street is part of the Lafayette Square Historic District.
The Howard T. Markey National Courts Building is a courthouse in Washington, D.C., which houses the United States Court of Federal Claims and the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. It is located at 717 Madison Place NW, east of Lafayette Square and north of the White House, and borders the Freedman's Bank Building to the south, Benjamin Ogle Tayloe House at 721 Madison Place NW, the former Cosmos Club building at 725 Madison Place NW, and the Cutts-Madison House at 1520 H Street NW.
The New Executive Office Building (NEOB) is a U.S. federal government office building in Washington, D.C., for the executive branch.
Being the site of military battles, deadly duels, assassinations, untimely deaths, and other associated tragedies, there are a number of reportedly haunted locations in Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States.
The Cutts–Madison House is an American colonial-style historic home, now used for offices located at 1520 H Street NW in Washington, D.C. The house is best known for being the residence of former First Lady Dolley Madison, who lived there from November 1837 until her death in July 1849.
Benjamin "Ogle" Tayloe was an American businessman, bon vivant, diplomat, scion of colonial tidewater gentry, and influential political activist in Washington, D.C. during the first half of the 19th century. Although he never held elective office, he was a prominent Whig and influential in presidential electoral politics in the 1840s and 1850s. His home, the Tayloe House, became a salon for politically powerful people in the federal government and socially influential individuals in the United States and abroad. Tayloe was also a party in the important 1869 contract law case, Willard v. Tayloe, 75 U.S. 557.
Col. John Tayloe III, of Richmond County, Virginia, was the premier Virginia planter; a politician, businessman, and tidewater gentry scion. He was prominent in elite social circles. A highly successful planter and early Thoroughbred horse breeder, he was considered the "wealthiest man of his day". A military officer, he also served in the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate of Virginia for nine years.
William Edwin Walton was an American journalist and abstract expressionist painter. He was a confidant of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy, and chaired the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts from 1963 to 1971.
The Freedman's Bank Building, previously known as the Treasury Annex, is a historic office building located on the corner of Madison Place and Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C. It sits on the east side of Lafayette Square, a public park on the north side of the White House, and across from the Treasury Building. The adjoining properties include the Howard T. Markey National Courts Building to the north and the former Riggs National Bank to the east.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
