History of the odd Ffoulke Mansion at 2013 Massachusetts Avenue, NW: A Man and His Tapestries

One might be hard pressed to assign an author a combined article about Welsh ancestry, Quaker religion, antique tapestries, Royal weddings, early retirement, and even Pope Urban VIII, but they are all integral to one mansion that once stood at 2013 Massachusetts Avenue, NW.  It was built in 1886 on the site of what today is the Hilton Embassy Row hotel just west of Dupont Circle.

The house was speculatively built by developer Brainard H. Warner and designed by James G. Hill in 1886.  Built at a cost of $11,000, it was purchased shortly thereafter and vastly expanded by owner Charles Mather Ffoulke (1841-1919).  He had an addition added onto the eastern side that nearly doubled the house for one specific purpose: to display his growing collection of 17^th Century antique tapestries.

Ffoulke was born in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, on July 25, 1841, the son of Benjamin Green and Jane (Mather) Ffoulke.  For generations, both his maternal and paternal families had been known as “counselors of the peace” being land surveyors and conveyancers charges with the amicable settlement of disputes common with early land settlement and development in and around Bucks county, Pennsylvania among the fellow Quaker inhabitants.  His father gained credibility with the North Pennsylvania Railroad when he negotiated a new right of way for the extensive track system with hundreds of families that resulted in not one single lawsuit.  The Ffoulke family received their own land in Quakerstown by a grant from William Penn. 

Following a short teaching career in Quaker schools, Charles Ffoulke entered the wool business in Philadelphia in 1861.  It was wildly successful, and he retired just eleven years later, in 1872.  He set off on an extended two year vacation to Europe to study art and tapestries, and married Sarah A. Cushing in Paris on December 10, 1872.  He crisscrossed the Atlantic several more times between 1874 and 1884, before embarking on a five year tour beginning that year. He had five children who included: Horace Cushing, Helen Seagrave, Gladys, Gwendolyn, and Charles M. Jr.      

Ffoulke had nearly completed a long manuscript entitled “General History of Tapestries” when it was accidently destroyed and he began to work on the tome all over again.  He also compiled a book on the art tapestries of America, and a book entitled “A History of the Barberini Collection of Tapestries,” which apparently caught his fascination: he purchased the entire collection of 135 tapestries in its entirely in 1888.  The collection had begun in 1610 by Italian Cardinal Francesco Barberini (1597-1679), aided by his uncle, Pope Urban VIII, and had largely been assembled by 1690.  They were considered the most important, varied, and extensive collection of tapestries to be owned by a private citizen at the time.  Urban VIII was not only a Pope, but exercised temporal sovereignty over an extensive part of central Italy.                                    

Ffoulke had to store most of the collection in a rented Convent in Florence, however, because of the high excise tax imposed on antiques of such value when they entered the United States.  Only his most prized tapestries were brought to hang in the gallery at the Massachusetts Avenue house, or temporarily lent to museums around the globe.  That gallery also hosted weddings for his daughters, who each married visiting Diplomats and Royal descendants from all parts of Europe. 

Ffoulke died suddenly in New York City on April 14, 1909, but his widow continued to reside at 2013 Massachusetts Avenue until the late 1920s.  The tapestries were sold to various wealthy individuals, including Phoebe Hearst, and John R. McLean, among others, and today have mostly found their way into museums and churches such as the Cathedral of St. John the Devine in New York City.            

Like many large houses in Washington, the Ffoulke mansion was transformed into a boarding house during World War II for the onslaught of government workers.  Photographer Esther Bubley captured those at 2013 Massachusetts Avenue in January 1943 for an Office of War Information project and noted that it the “schedule for use of the boardinghouse bathroom is worked out so that each person has eight minutes in the morning.  It is social suicide to ignore the schedule and cause a tie-up like this.”  Shown in the picture are Enid Bubley, Roselyn Silverman, and Bluma Horowitz at Dissin's, a boarding house at 2013 Massachusetts Avenue, NW that catered to “young Jewish people.”  (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)

Copyright Paul K. Williams

The Schneider Mansion at 18th and Q - Razed After 67 Years

Copyright Sharon Holdren

The large and impressive stone house seen here once stood proudly on the south-east corner of 18th and Q Streets. Many readers may recognize it as the Schneider mansion, home to prolific architect and developer Thomas Franklin Schneider (left) and his family. He built the house in 1891, only eight years after he began a private practice commonly designing and building entire blocks of lavish townhouses at once, such the 1700 block of Q Street adjacent the house.

The Q Street side of the mansion, with rear yard

What many readers may not know, however, is that Schneider and his family did not remain in the house for long. They apparently decided that the house was too large, and possibly too expensive to staff and maintain following an economic depression in 1893, and moved not long after its completion into a luxurious apartment in the Cairo Apartment Building in the 1600 block of Q Street, another Schneider landmark that would remain in the family until the 1960s. The mansion was immediately rented to the Chinese legation for a short period, then to Senator John Fairfield Dryden of New Jersey, and in 1914 to the Colonial School for Girls. The school had moved into the Schneider mansion from 1715 & 1725-29 Connecticut Avenue, where Miss Charlotte Crittenden Everett served as principal.

Outdoor athletics, 1914

The school was many things; both day students and boarding options mixed with college preparatory classes and finishing school seminars and training. According to its 1915-

The dining Room, as seen in 1914, set for students

1916 bulletin, the “true aim of education is to teach the individual to see clearly, to think independently, to imagine vividly, and to will nobly.” It noted that its location was “high and healthful” being just a block from Dupont Circle “in one of the best residential parts of the city.”  The shopping district and a plethora of street car lines were also highlighted in the school’s brochure. Meals were served in the dining room, where the mid-day luncheon only consisted of “milk, bouillon, and crackers.” The girls listened to evening lectures on such subjects as Moorish art and architecture, the Panama Canal tolls controversy, and The Effect of War on Womanhood by Jane Addams.

Romeo & Juliet performed in the ballroom in March, 1914

Thomas Schneider remained so close to the operation of the school that he invited all the students to attend the wedding of one of his daughters.  Much of the mansion retained the furnishings of the Schneiders, and rented along with the house. The girls rooms were likely to each have an open fireplace “for cheerfulness, and for healthfulness.” Classrooms, study halls, dining room, music studio, laboratory, offices, and several social gathering rooms completed the lavish environment.

The house also featured a large rear lawn along Q Street that was utilized for outdoor exercises. Tuition ranged from $800 to $1,000 per year, with incidental charges for such items as riding lessons, piano, breaking furniture, “corrective work in gymnastics,” and sewing.  When not attending classes in Latin, Greek, French and German, home training was taught as an “essential factor of an education which aids a girl to develop into a wise, true woman.” The school’s bulletin also stated, “The principal and her associates aim to help the girls realize the dignity and beauty of presiding in their homes with ease and graciousness.” History, art, rhetoric, biology, zoology, chemistry, economics, botany and “the Art of Church Organ” were also available.

Art students regularly visited the local galleries, including Veerhoff’s, then located farther downtown before its eventual relocation to Dupont Circle where it remained until the mid-1990s; however, all students were closely chaperoned any time they were off campus: “Under no circumstances are our pupils subjected to the embarrassment of appearing in public places unchaperoned” reads the school bulletin for 1915.

Students were charged 50 cents an hour when visiting doctors or dentists.  Principal Everett was joined by co-principal Jessie Truman in 1920, and the school continued to operate in the Schneider mansion until 1930, when the house was converted into a boardinghouse. Twenty-eight years later, the house was razed for a parking lot. In 1961, the nine story Dupont East apartment building was built on its site, and remains there today (illustrated below).

Copyright Paul Kelsey Williams

Lost Washington: The Stoneleigh Court Apartment at Connecticut & L Streets, NW

The large house owned by John N. Forbes on the southeast corner of Connecticut Avenue and L Street and several others were replaced by the Stoneleigh apartment building in 1903.  It was designed by James G. Hill, and built by Secretary of State John Hay (1838-1905), right, who has assembled the various parcels necessary.[1] 

 

The building was built at a cost of $600,000, and featured 90 apartments all furnished with elaborate wood paneling and the latest of conveniences.  It was the first apartment building to separate the usual bank of two adjoining elevators to decrease the time spent waiting for egress.  The building was set back from Connecticut Avenue, which it faced, with a central courtyard for vehicular access.  Hayes relatives sold the apartment building in 1926, when the courtyard was filled in for commercial storefronts.           

Harry Wardman became its owner in April of 1927, purchasing it for $1.6 million; just five months later, he sold it to out of town investors for $2.6 million.  Following the stock market crash of 1929, the building was sold at public auction in 1933 for just $800,000 to the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. 

In 1962, the building sold for $4.5 million or $150 a square foot, which set a record for Washington real estate at the time.  It was razed in 1965 and replaced by the Blake Building, which has been refaced since its original construction.    

Copyright Paul K. Williams

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[1] Hayes, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division; Stoneleigh Court via Smithsonian Institution.

Washington Lost: The Federal style townhouses in the 1900 Block of Pennsylvania Ave, NW, built in 1796

The 1900 block of Pennsylvania Avenue on the southern side of Square 118 was one of the oldest residential developments in Washington, DC, evidence of which remains in two preserved front facades at 1909 and 1911 Pennsylvania Avenue incorporated into the Mexican Embassy complex in the mid 1980s.  In addition, four houses that were built along Eye Street in 1887 remarkable remain to this day in much the same format as when they were built.  

Seven large and impressive Federal styled houses were built in 1796 along Pennsylvania Avenue from 1901 to 1911 as part of a speculative real estate development by the Morris and Nicholson syndicate.  Built before the government was moved to Washington from Philadelphia in 1800, the houses each featured fine brickwork and lintels over the front doors carved into a feminine head.  They were built by Georgetown builder John Archer, and while the original plans exist, the architect remains unknown. 

 

The most significant house in the development was the corner mansion at 1901 Pennsylvania.  It housed the entire State Department when the capitol moved to Washington in 1800, which had a total of twelve employees at the time.  In 1814, it was the residence of Vice President Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, President and Mrs. James Madison from 1815 to 1817 while the White House was being rebuilt, and Vice President Martin Van Buren in 1834.

During the Civil War, the corner house at 1901 Pennsylvania Avenue became the headquarters of both Maj. General George B. McClellan and Maj. General M. D. Hardin, as photographed by Mathew Brady in April of 1865 (seen in the background to the right is the side of the 19^th Street Baptist Church).[1]  By 1890, many of the houses in the row were deteriorated significantly, and were used for a variety of office and retail space.  The first location of People’s Drug store opened in the corner house at 1901 Pennsylvania shortly after the turn of the twentieth century, which later grew into a large chain across the entire Mid Atlantic.  All but 1909 and 1911 were razed in 1959 for the construction of a office building, with the remaining two facades incorporated into an office building on the western portion of the site today.      

Copyright Paul K. Williams    

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[1] Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division for architectural drawing and Brady photograph.