EMBASSY ROW/DUPONT CIRCLE

The following walks are available...

Embassy Row - The Gilded Age and Beyond

EXPLORE THE RICH HISTORY of the Dupont Circle neighborhood that includes newspaper publisher Cissy Patterson's Stanford White designed mansion at 11 Dupont Circle, her sharp-tongued rival - Alice Longworth Roosevelt, the Walsh McLean mansion - once home to the Hope Diamond - that is now the Indonesian Embassy, and the stunningly opulent Turkish Embassy built by the crimped Coca-Cola bottle top fortune (above).   And that's just for starters.   Arrangements can usually be made for an inside tour of the Indonesian or the Finnish Embassy.   $350

 

 

World War II on Embassy Row

ON THE EVE of the war, Washington had become a capital on the alert of attack and Dupont Circle hosted the Office of Civil Defense run by an earlier charismatic mayor of New York, Fiorello La Guardia.  He hired the President's wife - Eleanor Roosevelt - and they worked across the circle from where the legendary publisher Cissy Patterson harangued the president daily.  FDR happily sniped right back.   In an earlier life, the exclusive Cosmos Club (above) was used as a barracks for Canadian women.  Futher north on Massachusetts Avenue, the Japanese Embassy braced itself after the attack on Pearl Harbor that hurled America into the fray.  $350

 

Dupont Circle Elite  in Black and White

NEW HAMPSHIRE AVENUE NORTH OF THE CIRCLE was designed as the promenade for grand residences during the Gilded Age.  Perry Belmont arrived straight out of Edith Wharton's New York and needed an entire L'Enfant block to build his Beaux Arts masterpiece (above left). But it was anchored by side streets hosting people of disparate classes, color, and backgrounds.  In the early 20th century, Strivers' Rows - streets where middle class blacks strived to live the good life - cropped up in major cities in the north and right here in Dupont Circle.   We also focus on one truly unique Strivers Row - home briefly to Langston Hughes, Charles Houston (above with parents), General Benjamin O. Davis and a roster of early 20th century  African-American luminaries. $350

 Call 301-588-8999 or email marykayricks@gmail.com for group reservations.