Meridian House

About this property

Meridian House is a historic mansion in Washington, D.C., located in the Meridian Hill neighborhood of Northwest D.C. It was designed by American architect John Russell Pope and built in 1920 for Ambassador Irwin B. Laughlin, who filled it with his extensive collection of French paintings and Oriental porcelain. It stayed in the Laughlin family until 1960, when it was purchased by the non-profit Meridian International Center. Meridian House was built by American diplomat Irwin B. Laughlin. He purchased the land in 1912, two years after his friend Henry White bought the adjacent site at 1624 Crescent Place. After a long career with the US Foreign Service, Laughlin retired in 1919 and built Meridian House, filling it with his collection of 18th-century French drawings and Oriental porcelains and screens. Although he later returned to the diplomatic corps, serving as Ambassador to Greece and Spain in the 1920s and '30s, Laughlin also played an active role in Washington's artistic and historical communities. Ambassador Laughlin was married to Therese Iselin, daughter of New York City banker Adrian Iselin Jr. Their daughter, Gertrude, who married Rear Admiral Hubert Winthrop Chanler, lived in Meridian House during her youth and from time to time after her marriage, especially when her husband was away on naval assignments. The house remained in the Laughlin family until 1958. In 1960, a newly created non-profit organization dedicated to promoting international understanding, which later became Meridian International Center, received a grant from the Ford Foundation to purchase Meridian House. Gertrude Laughlin Chanler served as a Meridian trustee for many years and made a substantial donation to start Meridian's endowment. Her children continue to support Meridian International Center and frequently visit the house with their own children. In 1929, Meridian House was described by Architectural Forum as, Perhaps as fine a piece of work of its kind as this country can show ... Certainly the manner of this house has not in this country been better done, not only in terms of stylistic authenticity, but in terms of pure architecture, meaning good taste in selectivity, in elimination, in execution. It cannot from its nature do otherwise than set a standard which should endure permanently. After undergoing a major renovation in 1994, Meridian House's principal rooms retain their architectural detail as well as some of the original decorative features, such as the 18th-century European overdoor paintings and antique brass hardware and lighting fixtures. The classical symmetry of the Louis XVI style is reflected throughout the house.

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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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