Charles Evans Hughes House
- Architect
- George Oakley Totten, Jr.
- Style
- Spanish Colonial Revival
- City
- Washington, DC
The Charles Evans Hughes House at 2223 R Street NW was built in 1907 to a design by George Oakley Totten, Jr., in Washington's Embassy Row area near Sheridan Circle. From 1930 to 1948 it was the home of Charles Evans Hughes, Chief Justice of the United States from 1930 to 1941. Declared a National Historic Landmark in 1972, it now serves as the official residence of the Ambassador of Myanmar.
the building
One of a matched pair. It is one of two stone row houses, three-and-a-half stories tall, modeled on an Italian palazzo. The unpainted ground floor is sheltered by a flared glass-and-iron hood over the central main entrance, with a secondary entrance set in the rightmost bay.
Arches and window boxes. Second-floor windows are tall and set in rounded-arch openings with shallow iron balconies, while the third floor carries rectangular windows fitted with bracketed stone window boxes, a shift in rhythm that marks the palazzo's piano nobile from the floor above it.
the style
Totten used a Mediterranean Revival vocabulary modeled directly on the Italian palazzo, which explains the building's arched piano-nobile windows, iron balconies, and unpainted stone ground floor, all details borrowed from Renaissance Italian townhouses rather than American row-house convention.
More on Spanish Colonial Revivalsignificance
Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1972 for its association with Charles Evans Hughes, it is also a contributing property to the Sheridan-Kalorama Historic District and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It has since become the official residence of the Ambassador of Myanmar to the United States.
nearby
- Emma S. Fitzhugh House
- Beale, Joseph House (Egyptian Embassy)
- Codman-Davis House
- Townsend House
- Barney Studio House (and Interiors)
- Dumbarton Bridge