Owners and Tenants, 1819-1956

• Decatur
• Hyde de Neuville
• de Tuyll
• Clay
• Van Buren
• Livingston
• Vaughn
• Gadsby
• Dallas
• Gales
• John & James King
• Appleton
• Orr
• Benjamin
• McBlair
• United States Army
• Edward Beale &
  Mary Beale
• Truxtun Beale
• Marie Beale

TIMELINE OF OWNERS AND TENANTS
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Edward and Louise Livingston (tenants, 1831-1833)
Daughter Cora Livingston

The third and final Secretary of State to reside at Decatur House was Edward Livingston, who took over Martin Van Buren’s lease from Susan Decatur. His post in the Jackson administration came after a long and distinguished public service career as a lawyer, writer and politician. Livingston was perhaps best known for his Penal Code System for the State of Louisiana, a tract widely read in America as well as Britain and France. A neighbor in Washington described Livingston as a “soul of gayety and good humor” who had “an inexhaustible fund of stories that he acted out with a contagious glee.”

Louisa Livingston, a French-speaking native of Haiti, was a well-connected and fashionable woman, well-known in Washington for her elegant parties.
One guest described one of the Livingston’s dinners as “unequalled by anything I have seen at Washington.” Their daughter Cora was equally impressive to Washington society. Lafayette Square resident Benjamin Ogle Tayloe observed that Edward Livingston’s “beautiful wide and daughter made a great impression in those days, and especially the unequalled toilette of the latter. Nothing could be more
recherché and elegant. Miss Cora Livingston was accomplished and
amiable . . .” Indeed, Cora enjoyed numerous suitors during her residency on the Square, and eventually chose Thomas Pennant Barton. Their lavish wedding at Decatur House, held in April 1833, was one of the social events of that year, and was attended by President Jackson. During the reception, the president announced that Mr. Livingston would soon resign his post as Secretary of State to serve instead Minister to France, with his new son-in-
law serving as his Secretary in Paris. Word of this change soon spread throughout the capital, saddening many residents who would miss the Livingston family’s boisterous presence in the city.

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