Octagon, The

About this property

The Octagon House, also known as the Colonel John Tayloe III House, is a house located at 1799 New York Avenue, Northwest in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It was built in 1799 for John Tayloe III, the wealthiest planter in the country, at the behest of his new family member George Washington, as his sister Sarah Tayloe married William Augustine Washington, son of Gen. Washington's half brother Augustine Washington Jr. In September 1814, after British forces burnt the White House during the War of 1812, Tayloe, for six months, lent the Octagon House to United States president James Madison and first lady Dolley Madison to serve as the Executive Mansion. It is one of only seven houses to serve as the presidential residence in the history of the United States of America, and one of only three, along with the White House and Blair House, that still stand. John Tayloe III was born at Mount Airy, which he later inherited. The colonial estate was built by his father, John Tayloe II, on the north bank of the Rappahannock River across from Tappahannock, Virginia. By this time, it was the centerpiece of a roughly 60,000 acre department of interdependent plantation farms known as the Mount Airy department, located approximately one hundred miles south of Washington, D.C., in Richmond County, Virginia. He was educated at Eton and Christ's College, Cambridge University in England, served in the Virginia state legislature, and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1800. John Tayloe III married Ann Ogle, daughter of Benjamin Ogle and granddaughter to Samuel Ogle of Ogle Hall in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1792 at her family's country home Belair Mansion. Ann was only a year younger than her husband. Tayloe was reputed to be the richest Virginian planter of his time, and built the house in Washington at the suggestion of George Washington on land purchased from Gustavus W. Scott or Benjamin Stoddert, first Secretary of the Navy. The Octagon was originally constructed to be a winter residence for the Tayloe family, but they lived in the house year-round from 1818 to 1855. The Octagon property originally included a number of outbuildings, including a smokehouse, laundry, stables, carriage house, slave quarters, and an ice house (the only surviving outbuilding). The Tayloes were involved in shipbuilding, horse breeding and racing, and owned several iron foundries—they were fairly diversified for a plantation family. The Tayloes enslaved hundreds of people, and had between 12 and 18 who worked at the Octagon. Since the 1960s when it was designated a National Historic Landmark, it has served as a house museum, meeting and event space, operated by the American Institute of Architects Foundation.

Location

Categories

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.

More in District of Columbia County

Historic places, battles, and census history across District of Columbia County.

More historic places in District of Columbia

Browse all historic places in District of Columbia.

Conflict records

Explore 19,000+ military engagements across American history.

District of Columbia history

Colonial settlement, territorial period, and statehood narrative.