The President's Neighborhood: Two Dozen Blocks, Two Blockbuster Centuries of Change
11/21/2024 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM EST
Location: DACOR Bacon House OR Online, 1801 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006
Event Description
Please note this is a hybrid event - you have the option to attend in person or virtually. Registrations are required for all attendees. For in-person attendees, the event will run from 6 - 8:30 pm and will include a 3 course dinner and glass of wine. The live stream will begin around 7:15 pm (virtual attendees will be sent a link for the event via email).
In 1824, Tench Ringgold swapped properties with the widow and son of Tobias Lear, exchanging lots he owned on Pennsylvania Avenue between 17th and 18th streets for lots she owned on the corner of 18th and F Streets, and soon after began building the house that is now known as DACOR Bacon House. He was then marshal of the District of Columbia and the house with its magnificent parlors and dining room was designed to showcase his social and political prominence. The location was two blocks from the newly rebuilt President's House, where he was often in attendance. As F street ran west toward Georgetown, houses for the elite gave way to housing for poorer inhabits – Irish and Black. In the next hundred years, much would change in the neighborhood.
Over the years the area around the President’s Mansion gradually shifted from private residences occupied by the old-time gentry or well-to-do citizenry to hotels and office buildings. Presidential intervention during the Kennedy administration prevented Lafayette Square from becoming blocks of offices. Beyond the square, a few residents dug in to maintain their historic homes, among them Mrs. Robert Low Bacon, who even ran interference with planners who wanted to construct office buildings with windows directly overlooking her garden and residence. The arrival of George Washington University in the neighborhood slowed down the government take-over of the neighborhood. The spotlight on historic preservation now helps to retain what little is left of federal period Washington, and leaves DACOR Bacon House a stellar example of an historically significant residence.
Join our distinguished panelists including John DeFerrari, author of Sixteenth Street; Lina Mann, Historian, White House Historical Association; Katie Hummelt, Historian, Beyer Blinder Belle, contributor of the DACOR Bacon House Historic Structure Report; and Frank Leone, Historian, Foggy Bottom Historical Association to discuss the changes in the neighborhood over 200 years.
