Dumbarton House
National Register of Historic Places

Dumbarton House

Washington, District of Columbia County, District of Columbia
Listed
January 28, 1991
Type
Building
Period
Early Republic
Ref No.
90002148

About this property

Dumbarton House is a Federal style house located in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It was completed around 1800. Its first occupant was Joseph Nourse, the first Register of the Treasury. Dumbarton House, a federal period historic house museum, stands on approximately an acre of gardens on the northern edge of Georgetown, District of Columbia. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Displaying a fine collection of period decorative arts (furniture, silver, ceramics, etc.), it gives the visitor a concrete sense of a substantial private residence in the early 1800s. Constructed in 1798–99, the house was a private residence until The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America (NSCDA) purchased it for its headquarters in 1928 and gave it the name it has today. In addition to meeting its administrative needs, the NSCDA wanted to illustrate domestic life in Georgetown in the early federal period. To achieve this, its two principal floors were opened to the public as a house museum in 1932, on the 200th anniversary of the birth of George Washington. Both the house and the nearby Dumbarton Oaks take their names from an 18th-century estate which made up much of the area, which in turn had been named for the Scottish "Rock of Dumbarton."

Location

2715 Q St., NW.
Washington, District of Columbia County, District of Columbia
38.91087, -77.05571

Categories

ARCHITECTURESOCIAL HISTORY
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Native Heritage
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Settlement
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Nearby Historic Sites

Evermay
Colonial
0.1 mi
Mount Zion Cemetery
Listed
0.1 mi
Van Ness Mausoleum
Industrial
0.1 mi
Oak Hill Cemetery Chapel
Early Republic
0.2 mi
Dumbarton Bridge
Industrial
0.2 mi

Nearby Battles

September 11 Pentagon Attack
2001Modern
2.7 mi
September 11 Attacks — Pentagon
2001Modern
2.7 mi

Questions about this property

When was Dumbarton House listed on the National Register?

Dumbarton House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 28, 1991.

What type of historic resource is Dumbarton House?

Dumbarton House is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Dumbarton House?

The period of significance for Dumbarton House is recorded as the early_republic era, specifically around 1800.

Can I research the history near Dumbarton House?

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