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Embassy Row
The nouveau-riche crowd has made many an eyeball roll reflexively skyward. Call
them robber barons or captains of industry, dub their heyday industrial or
gilded, today we can revel in the Beaux-Arts grandeur of Washington’s
Massachusetts Avenue, better known as Embassy Row. We’ll meet at Dupont Circle
and introduce you to the families who decided to showcase their fortunes in the
nation’s capital: members of the first ranks of mining, railroads, banking,
publishing, politicians and speculators in the 1880s and 90s. Spendthrift
offspring, the Great Depression and other misfortune eventually drained the
resources of many families. Only 50 years later, embassies, clubs and other
institutions were buying up their mansions for as little as 10 cents on a
dollar. But in between, the high life and high architecture has made for some
great stories. Alice Roosevelt Longworth delivered her famous line here -- “If
you don’t have anything nice to say, sit next to me” -- and spirited chum Evalyn
Walsh McLean lived a few doors up where she kept the Hope Diamond. Our walk ends
outside the magnificent Phillips Collection museum, former residence of steel
heir and avid art collector Duncan Phillips.
Led by Chris, Mary Anne, or Terry
