Living in History: 5 Great House Museums in Washington
Washington's most fascinating house museums allow visitors to relive history by roaming through rooms
Dumbarton House
Photography by Todd Franson
When it comes to historic preservation in America, it’s ladies first. “It was women that were pushing for and ultimately responsible for the preservation of so many of our national landmarks and sites,” Karen Daly says. Without the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, for example, there might not be a Washington family estate to visit, having fallen into a decades-long state of decay when that organization bought it in 1858. And we also have the ladies — or in this case “dames” — to thank for Dumbarton House. The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America was one of the very first organizations to champion house museums, and the society oversees its national collection of properties from Dumbarton House, which it bought in 1928 and first opened in 1932.
A quintessential Federal style mansion, Dumbarton was originally built in 1799 by Samuel Jackson. (It was also originally called Belle Vue, but the Society opted to name it after its neighborhood at the time — and despite sharing a name, the mansion Dumbarton House is unaffiliated with the nearby museum Dumbarton Oaks.) Dumbarton House focuses on the Nourse family, who was the first to live at the residence for a prolonged period, in the first decade of the 19th century. It was a fascinating time in the young and growing capital — until the summer of 1814, when the British burned the Capitol and the White House “and left the city in absolute chaos,” says Daly. “The burning was a big deal,” he adds, “but we don’t learn about it much today.” Dumbarton has a small exhibit illuminating the war’s impact on the capital through autumn.
As one of the oldest and most established house museums, Dumbarton seems to have more fascinating stories to be told per square foot than the average. So be sure to budget enough time to learn about some of the finer points, from how the museum came to acquire the dining room table to the story of the bright serpentine-backed Chippendale sofa in the parlor.
Dumbarton House is 2715 Q St. NW. Tickets are $5. Call 202-337-2288 or visit dumbartonhouse.org.
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