SAVE AMERICA'S TREASURES
home > the site> save america's treasures

With funding in part from the Save America's Treasures program of the National Parks Service, Decatur House is currently embarking on the restoration of its entry hall and stair hall.

This impressive space is one of the architectural highlights of Decatur House, and an important symbol of its history. In the developing years of the nation’s capital, Stephen Decatur declared his commitment to the new city by constructing a residence less than a block from the White House. His choice of the nation’s first professional architect,
Benjamin Henry Latrobe, worked in tandem with his choice of location to
reflect Decatur’s own social – and possibly political – ambition. Latrobe did
not disappoint, especially in his entry hall for this grand federal-style
townhouse, a space he consciously designed to echo the interiors of his most noteworthy commission, the United States Capitol. Despite Decatur’s untimely death fourteen months after the completion of his new home, the entry hall served as a powerful reminder of the social standing – and the political ties –
of its subsequent residents, who included some of the 19th century’s most important and influential figures.

This year, Decatur House begins the restoration of this entryway, arguably
one of the most significant spaces in the home. Despite the frequent turnover
of its residents in the fifty years following the death of Decatur, much of the
entry hall remains relatively unchanged from its original 1818 design. Minor changes were made during the occupancy of John and Providence Gadsby from 1836 to 1861, but the most sweeping alterations came in ca. 1875 when Edward and Mary Beale remodeled and redecorated the house in the latest Victorian style. Though significant, most of these late 19th century changes
were largely cosmetic.

The retention of this architectural fabric, combined with the significance of Latrobe as “the father of American architecture” and the melding of his public and private architecture in the design of the entry hall, has inspired Decatur House to return the space to the grandeur of its earliest years.