Dumbarton House (Nat'l Society of Colonial Dames of America; Bellevue)
- Architects
- Fiske Kimball Horace W. Peaslee
- Year
- 1800
- Style
- Federal
- City
- Washington, DC
- Collection
- federal washington
Dumbarton House was built in 1798-99 as a Federal-style residence in Georgetown, its first occupant Joseph Nourse, the first Register of the Treasury. It stayed a private home until 1928, when the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America bought it for their headquarters and renamed it. In 1932, on the 200th anniversary of George Washington's birth, the Colonial Dames opened its two principal floors to the public as a house museum.
the building
The gardens. The house sits on roughly an acre of gardens at the northern edge of Georgetown, giving the museum grounds as well as rooms to interpret early-1800s domestic life.
The period collection. Inside, the Colonial Dames display a collection of early federal-period decorative arts - furniture, silver, and ceramics - assembled to give visitors a concrete sense of a substantial Georgetown residence of the early 1800s.
the style
Dumbarton House is a Federal-style house, the style of choice for well-off residences in the young capital around 1800, and its restoration under the Colonial Dames aimed to preserve that early federal character rather than update it.
More on Federalthe architect
The restoration that shaped the house as it appears today was overseen by Fiske Kimball, an architect and architectural historian known for his period restoration work, alongside Washington architect Horace W. Peaslee.
significance
Dumbarton House is a DC Historic Landmark (#L_0073), a contributing and individually listed property on the National Register of Historic Places, and listed on the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites.
nearby
- Evermay
- Oak Hill Cemetery Chapel
- Mount Zion United Methodist Church
- Dumbarton Bridge
- Barney Studio House (and Interiors)
- Beale, Joseph House (Egyptian Embassy)