Thomas Law House
- Year
- 1794
- Style
- Federal
- City
- Washington, DC
- Collection
- federal washington
The Thomas Law House, built in 1794-1796 near 6th and N Streets SW in Southwest Waterfront, was raised by a syndicate headed by land speculator James Greenleaf. In March 1796 it briefly became home to Thomas Law, who had just married Eliza Parke Custis, Martha Washington's eldest granddaughter -- the marriage that gave the house its nickname, the Honeymoon House. The couple moved on by that summer to a house on New Jersey Avenue, but the name stuck.
the building
Thomas Law's fortune. Law arrived in Washington in the summer of 1794 already wealthy, having spent years trading in India. He was the son of Edmund Law, Bishop of Carlisle, and brother to Edward Law, 1st Baron Ellenborough and Lord Chief Justice from 1802 to 1818, and to two more brothers who became Church of England bishops. He ranked among Washington's wealthiest citizens in the capital's earliest years.
Greenleaf's syndicate. The house was built by a syndicate headed by James Greenleaf, one of the earliest land speculators to buy and develop lots in the newly platted District of Columbia.
the style
Federal (c. 1780–1830): Refined American Georgian: oval fanlights over doors, slender proportions, and delicate garland ornament.
More on Federalsignificance
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites, the Thomas Law House survives as a physical link to Washington's earliest years, tied by marriage to the Custis-Washington family within a decade of the capital's founding.
nearby
- Mead Center for American Theater
- Friendship Baptist Church
- Robert C. Weaver Federal Building
- Railroad Retirement Board (Mary Switzer Building)
- U.S. Department of Agriculture Cotton Annex
- Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building