Many US presidents have lived in Washington before and after they occupied the White House, and several of their homes have gone on to become embassies, ambassadors’ residences and other houses of diplomacy. Here are some of our favorite presidential properties we’ve covered at Diplomatica. Enjoy!
In what is now the Monégasque Ambassador’s residence, a newspaper publisher turned senator wrote steamy love letters to his mistresses, and drafted what would become his presidential inaugural speech.
In the gentleman’s study in the house at 2314 Wyoming NW in Washington, D.C., cigar smoke once hung so thick in the air that it was nearly one hundred years before it could all be cleared away. It was in this study that a newspaper publisher turned senator wrote steamy love letters to his mistresses, plotted to pay off those mistresses with his friend and fixer, and drafted the speech that would become his inaugural address when he would be sworn in as president in March, 1921.
Now the residence of the Ambassador from Monaco, and redecorated personally by the current ambassador, Maguy Maccario Doyle, to be a suitable home for diplomatic entertaining, the house that once belonged to Warren G. Harding might have become just another home in Washington were it not for an extraordinary series of events that left their imprint, like the smoke that clung to the walls, for many years after.
Read You Can’t Sell Sentiment in Washington.
Two hours after President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963, Lyndon Johnson, standing beside a shellshocked and blood-stained Jackie Kennedy, was sworn in as President on Air Force One at Love Field. That evening, when the plane returned to Washington, Kennedy returned to the White House, and Johnson returned to The Elms.
In 1963, there was no formal residence for the Vice President. Number One, Observatory Circle, wouldn’t become the “temporary permanent residence” for the nation’s second-in-command until a public law declared it so in 1974. Instead, for the two years prior to his moving into The White House, Johnson and Lady Bird lived at The Elms at 4040 52nd Street, a 12-room, French chateau-style estate they had purchased from former ambassador to Luxembourg, socialite and infamous “hostess with the mostess” Perle Mesta.
Until December 6, when the Kennedy family moved out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the Elms would serve as a temporary White House.
Six months later, it would be sold to the government of Algeria.
Read A Presidential Act of Defiance.
“Historic home within city for sale,” read a listing in The Washington Post in 1939. “Rock of Dumbarton stands on ridge once figured for Capitol site.”
“One part of the Rock of Dumbarton tract has been called Single Oak because it is dominated by a giant age-old tree of that variety, standing out in stately grandeur from among many other beautiful old trees,” it continued.
It may have just been a claim to enhance the mystique of the property, but legend has it that George Washington himself once looked at Single Oak and thought, “Now there would make an ideal spot for our federal seat.”
In 1926, future Vice President Henry Wallace built a house there.