When it was completed in 1890, the pink granite and brick
mansion constructed at 1701 20th Street, near the corner of R Street
and Connecticut Avenue towered over its more humble neighboring houses built of
wood frame. It was the home of New York
merchant George S. Fraser, and had been designed by the noted architects Joseph
Hornblower and James Marshall.
Fraser had first come to Washington in 1888, and obtained
the permit to build the mansion at 1720 20th Street in June of
1890. It was built at a cost of $75,000,
far more than ten times the cost of a typical Washington townhouse being built
at the time. The Frasers summered at
Northeast Harbor on the Maine coast. George
Fraser didn’t enjoy the house for long, however, as he died in 1896.
The architectural firm of Hornblower and Marshall was formed
in 1883 and was responsible for many Washington homes and public buildings of
significance. Joseph Hornblower had
studied at Yale University and the famed Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris,
completing his studies in 1871. Marshall
had graduated from Rutgers College in 1871.
Their Fraser mansion was listed in the National Register of Historic
Places in 1975.
In 1901, George Fraser’s widow sold the mansion to
Pennsylvania Congressman Joseph Earlston Thropp (1847-1927) and his wife,
Miriam Douglas Scott-Thropp. She was the
eldest and widowed daughter of Col. Thomas Alexander Scott, a President of the
Pennsylvania Railroad and a former Assistant Secretary of War under President
Lincoln. Joseph Throop made a fortune
from the manufacturer of pig iron, and served as a Representative from
Pennsylvania in the 56th Congress from March 4, 1899 to March 3,
1901, when they moved into 1720 20th Street.
Thropp graduated from the Polytechnic College of Pennsylvania
in 1868 with a degree in engineering. He
first gained employment constructing docks at Duluth, Minnesota, and Fond du
Lac, Wisconsin, eventually attaining the position of railroad division
engineer. In 1870, he moved to
Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, and engaged in the manufacture of pig iron, sub
subsequently becoming owner of the Earlston Furnaces in Everett, Pennsylvania,
in 1888. He died in 1927, and his wife
Miriam died in 1930.
The mansion served
as a series of restaurants beginning with the Parrot Tea Room in 1932, with a
boarding house located upstairs. It was
subsequently leased to John Goldstein in 1950, who renamed the restaurant Golden
Parrot. It was sold in 1974 and later
became known as the Golden Booeymonger, and Bermuda House restaurants, and the
nightclub’s known as Larry Brown’s and Sagittarius. In 1981, international restaurateur Walter
Sommer purchased the mansion for $2 million, and after a $3 renovation, opened a
restaurant named the Four Ways. A plan
in 1987 to convert the mansion and built a seven story condominium building on
the rear lot was thwarted by local residents.
The mansion was purchased by the Founding Church of
Scientology in April of 1994. Its
founder, L. Ron Hubbard had moved to Washington, DC in 1923, and attended The
George Washington University. At his
home near Dupont Circle, Hubbard wrote the very first manuscript of his
discoveries: Dianetics: The Original Thesis, known today as The
Dynamics of Life. That led to his
founding the Church of Scientology in
this city in 1955.
The Church undertook a massive renovation of the structure
that lasted over a year; its interior woodwork and fourteen fireplaces were all
meticulously restored. Located on the
lower ground floor are three stained
glass windows depicting the seals of Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, DC that
were discovered in the attic during the project.
Copyright Paul K. Williams
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