This section traces the history of the construction, occupancy, ownership, and alterations of 736 Jackson Place.

Primary information on the ownership, construction, and alteration of 736 Jackson Place is scant Cornelia Knower Marcy, for whom the row house was built, was a private individual who left behind no known archive accessible to the public despite her husband's life in public service. The history, therefore, was compiled from indirect sources of information. The sequence of property owners was derived from a review of tax assessment records which were updated intermittently after 1819.[1] Original drawings of the building are not known to exist.[2] The assigned date of c1870 for the building's construction is based upon information gleaned from the tax assessment records as substantiated by published city directories.[3]

Attribution of the 1895 remodeling to the architectural firm of Carrere and Hastings was based upon a review of building permits [4] which were available after 1877, and inspection of the building itself. Information on the use of the building as a temporary White House in the summer and fall of 1902 was obtained from contemporary newspaper accounts.[5] Building permits and directory listings also provided information on subsequent occupants. The late nineteenth century appearance of the exterior of 736 Jackson Place is well documented in several photographs reproduced in this chapter following the Description of Building as Originally Built section, below.

This section begins with an outline of the ownership of the lot prior to c1870, when the row house was built. The text proceeds chronologically to report what is known about the original construction, and subsequent ownership, occupancy, and alteration. This is followed by biographical information on significant persons and institutions associated with the building. Ownership and occupancy are summarized in chart form following this text. A summary statement of significance concludes the section.

736 Jackson Place [6] has been associated with the name of William Learned Marcy (1786-1857) since-1924, when Major Gist Blair stated that 'William D.[sic] Marcy, Secretary of War under President Polk" occupied 22 Jackson Place,[7] its original number. Subsequently, the building has come to be called the Marcy House.[8] The building's connection with the Jacksonian Democrat who reportedly coined the phrase "to the victor belongs the spoils," however, was inaccurate. The house was built for and occupied by his widow, Cornelia Knower Marcy.

The site of 736 Jackson Place, like its neighbors to the south, was part of an undeveloped lot owned by the Decatur family until the Civil War, after William Marcy's death.[9] When the Decatur property was controlled by the US Army during the Civil War, the site of 736 Jackson Place was occupied by a temporary structure called "Clothing Department Warehouse Number 5."[10]

In 1871, the Decaturs sold their house to General Edward Fitzgerald Beale. Prior to this, the Decaturs disposed of the lot abutting the southern edge of their garden. By 1869, this lot, numbered 37, had been sold to a Lorenzo Sherwood, who sold it to John Knower soon after.[11]

In July, 1895, Mrs. Townsend was granted a permit to add a two-story rear addition to the house. The addition measured 16 feet wide by 29.5 feet. The project, estimated to cost $12,000, included new front entrance doors, and unspecified "general repairs," followed plans prepared by the architectural firm of Carrere and Hastings.[20] Although plans accompanying the permit are not known to have survived, the general repairs appear to have included, at a minimum, replacement of the main staircase and parlor mantelpieces, possibly requiring limited reconfiguration of the first floor interior spaces. The rear addition appears to have contained a ballroom.[21] Later that year, the heating system appears to have been reworked.[22]

Mrs. Townsend was one of several residents who chose to relocate from Lafayette Square at the turn of the twentieth century to the more fashionable Dupont Circle. In a move that made her property more marketable, she successfully petitioned the US Government in 1898 for permission to acquire a small plot of land in the rear of the townhouse previously used as a public alley.[23] Three years later, she and her husband moved to a house on Massachusetts Avenue, newly remodeled by Carrere and Hastings.
 

The most famous occupant of 736 Jackson Place was its next resident, President Theodore Roosevelt and his family, during the 1902 renovation of the White House following the plans of McKim Mead and White. In late June, Mrs. Townsend rented the house for "four months or more if needed to be used as a residence and for executive offices" of the President,[24] and furniture from the White House was moved across Pennsylvania Avenue for the duration. The Roosevelt family was away from Washington during the White House remodeling.

After spending a few nights there in July, Roosevelt spent the rest of the summer with his family in Oyster Bay, New York, and prepared for a trip to the western United States scheduled for September and early October. The tour was abruptly canceled soon after its start following a streetcar accident in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The accident resulted in the death of the Secret Service agent accompanying the President and the fracture of one of Roosevelt's shins. The President returned to Washington, where confined at first to bed and later to a wheelchair, he transacted executive business, held Cabinet meetings, and received visitors at the Townsend house through the end of October. As summarized in a contemporary account in the New York Times, "He [Roosevelt] slept in it [736 Jackson Place] a few night [sic] before going to Oyster Bay for the Summer, and returned to it when his Western journey was abandoned on account of the injury to his leg from the Pittsfield trolley accident. Mrs. Roosevelt and the children have spent even less time there than the President.[25]

736 Jackson Place was the scene of at least one event of national significance during this period.[26] In 1902, a strike in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania, upon which the people of the eastern United States were dependent for fuel, threatened to drag on Into the winter months. Roosevelt who demanded a "square deal" toward labor as well as capital but supported the open shop, summoned a conference of mine-owners and union leaders on October 3 held In the front room of the second floor. At the meeting, according to historian Samuel Eliot Morison:

The unions offered to arbitrate, the owners refused, and urged the President to break the strike with the army as [President] Cleveland might have done. Roosevelt merely published the results of the conference, and public indignation then compelled the owners to submit to arbitration by a presidential commission. The episode not only strengthened his popularity, it taught him to use public opinion as a whip for recalcitrant congressmen no less than for captains of industry.[27]

The Townsends owned the property until 1918 or 1919, with no documented alterations to the townhouse apart from routine maintenance. In 1908, a contractor named George J. Hughes was hired to "clean down, oil and pencil," the east facade.[28] A private garage was erected on the site in 1914 for the Minister of the Netherlands to the United States, who probably occupied the townhouse at the time.[29]

The Women's City Club of Washington purchased and occupied the townhouse around 1919. Alterations initiated by the Club were primarily planned in the rear additions, which are no longer extant.[30]

In 1929 the Club filed plans for the addition of a sun porch, designed by architect C. L. Harding, on the roof of the rear addition of 1895.[31]

In February, 1944, the Club sold the building and vacated the premises.[32] The new owner, the National Lutheran Council of the United Lutheran Church of America, embarked upon bringing the building up to code as an office building during the 1940s.[33] The Council occupied Its building for little more than a decade. In 1955, the property was offered for sale. As described in a real-estate listing, the 29-room office building of 10,000 square feet (exclusive of halls), remodeled In accordance with the District's requirements of 1948, was equipped with steel doors and florescent lighting throughout.[34] In August, 1956, the council sold the historic but extensively renovated property "to a group of out of town investors" with no definite plans for the Its use, as reported by the Washington Post.[35]

Significant Persons/ Organizations  

Owners and Occupants

Mrs. William Learned Marcy

James Gillespie Blaine (1830-1893), Republican Presidential candidate in 1884 and a major figure in national politics in the post-Civil War period, was born in West Brownsville, Pennsylvania. After graduating at an unusually young age from Washington College (1847), Blaine taught school (1848-54), studied law and married Harriet Stanwood of Maine before becoming editor of the Kennebec Journal, published in Augusta, Maine (1854-57). He soon became known in the Maine political scene and assumed a leadership role in the Republican Party in the 1850s. Before the age of thirty, he was the Maine delegate to the first national Republican Party convention in 1856, and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Republican organization of Maine prior to the Civil War.

Following his appointment as State Commissioner of Prisons and Reformatories, his first public office, Blaine was a member of the Maine legislature (1859-1862) and speaker (1861-62). He served in Congress (1862-1876) and was Speaker of the House (1869-76). The "Mulligan letters" (1876), which accused Blaine of using his position as Speaker for personal gain by giving a land grant to the Little Rock and FL Smith R.R. Company, dashed his hopes for the Presidential nomination that year. Returning to Maine, he served In the State Senate until 1880, but again failed to secure the nomination. Appointed Secretary of State by President Garfield in 1881, Blaine planned the first Pan-American Conference (which was not held until 1889), and proposed to Great Britain a modification of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty.

In 1884, while residing at 736 Jackson Place, Blaine headed the Republican ticket for President in his unsuccessful bid. His defeat was attributed in no small part to an indiscreet remark by one of his supporters to the Democratic party as the party of "Rum, Romanism and Rebellion," which probably lost him the critical state of New York. The campaign also marked the first return of a Democratic candidate, Grover Cleveland, to the White House since the Civil War.

After losing the election, he resumed work on his autobiography titled Twenty Years In Congress. Having supported Benjamin Harrison in the election of 1888, he again served as Secretary of State (1889-92), during which time he settled the Bering Sea dispute with Great Britain, and favored Hawaiian annexation. He died in Washington, DC in 1893.[39]

President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), the 26th President of the United States, occupied 736 Jackson Place during the summer of 1902. Having distinguished himself in public service at a young age in New York as US Civil Service Commissioner (1889-1895) and president of the City Board of Police Commissioners (1895-97), he resigned his position as Assistant Secretary of the Navy (1897-98) during the Spanish-American War to organize with Leonard Wood, the 1st Volunteer Cavalry ("Rough Riders"), and as its colonel, led the famous charge up San Juan Hill. Elected Governor of New York (1898), his reform administration alarmed political boss T. C. Platt, who arranged to have him removed from the state to run as the Vice Presidential candidate with William McKinley an the Republican ticket in 1900.

Roosevelt became President in 1901, at the age of 42, upon the assassination of President McKinley. At the time he occupied 736 Jackson Place, President Roosevelt had not yet earned his reputation as a "trust buster" who distinguished between good and bad trusts and championed "the little man." His action in settling the national coal strike from his temporary office in 736 Jackson Place boosted his popularity and contributed to his decisive reelection in 1904. The accomplishments of his administration included sponsorship of the conservation of national resources, and food inspection and railroad rate legislation. Roosevelt increased the powers of the Presidency by decisive actions, and expanded the prestige and the influence of the United States in Its foreign relations, for which his watchwords were "Walk Softly and Carry a Big Stick." He secured the right to construct the Panama Canal. Roosevelt supported the "Open Door" policy, a series of declarations by powers interested in trade with China, which served to preserve Chinese territorial and administrative Integrity. He was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for his intervention In the Russo-Japanese War.

Roosevelt supported William Howard Taft, his Secretary of War, as his successor, but split with the Republican party in the election of 1912 to run again on the "Bull-Moose" ticket, resulting in the election of Woodrow Wilson.

736 Jackson Place was leased to the Government for the use of the President, his wife and six children while the White House was undergoing Its first major renovation since it was rebuilt after burning by the British In 1814. Roosevelt commissioned the architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White to make the necessary changes, including replacing Victorian period features with Beaux-Arts classicism. Concurrently, The McMillan Plan, which recommended the redevelopment of Lafayette Square, was developed during his administration.

Mrs. Richard H. Townsend (no dates), nee Mary Scott, daughter of William L Scott, inherited the house in 1891 and owned it until 1919. A prominent Washington socialite, she commissioned a major renovation and enlargement of the building during her ownership and rented the building to the US Government for use as a temporary executive mansion in 1902. During her ownership, 736 Jackson Place was renovated, and the property was used as the temporary White House for President Theodore Roosevelt.

Richard A. Townsend, president of the Erie and Pittsburgh Railroad, occupied the house with his wife from 1891 until 1901.

Carrere and Hastings, an architectural firm formed in 1884, designed the interior renovation of 736 Jackson Place in 1895. John Mervin Carrere (1858-191 1) and Thomas Hastings (1860-1929) were both graduates of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris who worked as draftsmen In the New York office of McKim, Mead & White before beginning their partnership. The earliest commissions of their practice were a series of buildings designed Henry M. Flagler, a developer active in St. Augustine, Florida in the late 1880s. These projects included the Hotel Ponce de Leon, the Alcazar Hotel, and the Flagler Memorial Presbyterian Church, each completed before 1890 in a modified Spanish Renaissance style.

Returning to New York in 1887 to establish a home office, the firm distinguished itself from its competition with a distinctive classical vocabulary derivative of French, especially Parisian, forms. The firm's work during this period included the Congregational Church in Providence, RI (1891), the Hotel Laurel-in-the-Pines, Lakewood, NJ (1891), and the neoclassical "Life" Building in New York (1893-94). Examples of their residential design executed around the time of the remodeling of 736 Jackson Place were townhouses for Dr. Christian A. Herter at 817 Madison Avenue (1892), Mr. and Mrs. Richard M. Hoe at 11 East 71st Street (I892), and Henry T. Sloane at 9 East 72nd Street (1896), all in New York. The latter is regarded as one of the firm's finest townhouses in the French neoclassical mode.[41]

The Townsends subsequently retained the firm in 1902 to remodel an earlier house at 2121 Massachusetts Avenue, NW when they moved from Jackson Place to Dupont Circle.[42] Other later residential commissions by the firm included New York townhouses for Mary D. Dunham (1901), John H. Hammond (1903), George and Sarah Rives (1908). Samuel H. Valentine (1909) and William Starr Miller (1914), the neo-Georgian manor for Hon. Elihu Root at 733 Park Avenue, NY (1903), the Murray Guggenheim residence In Elberon, NJ (1903), and the William K Vanderbilt estate at Great Neck, NY (1907), the Henry Clay Frick residence in New York (1914). The W. R. Caste, Jr. House at 2200 S Street NW (1929) and the David A. Reed House at 2222 S Street NW (1929), both executed in Washington in a modified English Regency style, are among the last projects of the firm.[43]

The firm's stature within the profession rapidly grew after the turn of the century following the appointment of Carrere as Chief Architect and Chairman of the Board of Architects for the Pan American Exposition at Buffalo in 1901. By 1899, Carrere and Hastings had established an office In Washington. Major commissions for public buildings included additions and alterations to the stair hall outside the old Library of Congress in the Capitol (1901), the House and Senate Office Buildings near the Capitol (1905-08), and the Carnegie Institution of Washington at 1530 P Street NW (1908).[44] Outside Washington, major public buildings included Richmond Borough Hall (1906) and County Court House (1913-1919), Staten Island, NY, and the New York Public Library (completed 1913), the design of which was awarded on the basis of a competition.

Following Carrere's untimely death in an automobile accident, the firm continued to receive important international commissions, including the Bank of Mexico in Mexico City, the John Paul Jones Monument in West Potomac Park (1912), Grand Army Plaza on Fifth Avenue, NY (1912), the Hold Washington at 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue (1917-18), the Victory Arch in Madison Square, NY, the American Marne Monument in Paris, the McKinley Monument in Buffalo, NY, the National Amphitheater in Arlington Cemetery (1920), and the Devonshire House, an apartment complex, in London (1928, with G. H. Reilly).[45]

Luther Morris Leisenring (1875-1965) was the architect of the 1948 office renovation for the Lutheran Council, who later authored an article "Lament for Lafayette Square," AIA Journal, February, 1961. The article is believed to have influenced President Kennedy in intervening to save the Jackson Place townhouses. Leisendng was born in Lutherville, Maryland, and attended the Polytechnic Institute In Baltimore and the University of Pennsylvania. He received his early training in the offices of E. G. Lind in Baltimore, John T. Windrim In Philadelphia, Keen and Mead in Philadelphia, and in three Now York City firms: Charles A. Platt; Hornblower and Marshall, and Cass Gilbert. Noted as a practitioner in the modified neoclassical style, Leisenring's major work included: the New National Museum of the Smithsonian (1905-08, wfth, Hornblower and Marshall), the Court of Appeals in Washington, (1908); the power house for the Capitol Building (1908); Trinity Lutheran Church, Charleston, West Virginia (1919), Trinity Lutheran Church, Dundalk, Maryland (1920); the Lutheran Church of the Incarnation in Washington (1922); and restorations of Bellefield at Croom, Maryland, and Tulip Hill in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Leisenring was active in many professional and civic organizations, including the Society of Architectural Historians and the Thorton Society, an organization that fostered interest In protecting architectural monuments in the District.[46]

During the debate over the future of the row house in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the cohesive scale, texture, use of materials, colors, voids and rhythm, were recognized. These attributes served as the basis of the National Register nomination, when the row house was listed as a contributing element within the Lafayette Square Historic District, a significant urban landscape that was shaped by both intentional design and historical accident.

736 Jackson Place, the Marcy/Townsend house, is a palimpsest rich in historical and architectural associations. The house was occupied by James G. Blaine in 1384 during his unsuccessful Presidential campaign. The original ltalianate row house was skillfully reworked to the designs of the prominent firm of Carrere and Hastings in 1895. These renovated interiors were subsequently occupied by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1902 when the White House was remodeled. During his brief occupancy, the house was the scene of an important meeting during the 1902 coal strike between the owners and organized labor, which boosted the President's popularity. The architectural character of 736 Jackson Place from this period is well preserved today.

Since the 1960s, the rehabilitation of 736 Jackson Place row house can be seen as having acquired additional significance. The rehabilitation was part of a project that marked an important and clearly recognizable change in federal policy toward contextual urban design and the appreciation and preservation of non-monumental building stock. In retrospect, the methodological approach pioneered in the project appears to have contributed to the philosophical underpinning of the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation, which have been widely applied in public and private sector construction projects since that time. Moreover, the project established a precedent for subsequent examples of "facadism," both positive and negative, where existing exterior elements were selectively preserved and re-used as features in new construction.

1 For Square 167, General Assessments were made in the years 1819, 1824, 1844, 1854, 1859, 1869, 1869-71, 1872-73, 1878-79, 1886-87,1889-90, 1902-03, 1908-09, 1917-18,1923-24, and yearly thereafter through 19M. These records are located at the National Archives, Washington, D.C.

2 The construction of the building predates 1877, when building permits were first required in the District of Columbia. Drawings accompanying the permit for alteration work in the 18ws, d any were submitted, have not been retained at the National Archives.

3 Boyd's Directory of the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C. Available editions for the years 1861 through 1966 were reviewed.

4 Building Division, District of Columbia, Building Permits, 2/17/1877 through 9/7/1949. All permits pertaining to 708 Jackson Place were reviewed. These records are located in the National Archives, Records of the D.C. Government, Record Group 351.

5 Clippings of articles concerning this event, as reported in many unindexed contemporary newspapers, were reviewed in the Washingtoniana Collection of the Martin Luther King Library, Washington, D.C.

6 Listed as "# 726-razed" in King.

7 Blair, p. 164.

8 Mrs. L. King, p. 19, Scott and Lee, p. 160.

9 This lot was numbered 37 in the original lot system. According to the General Assessments, the lot was in Stephen Decatur's name in 1819 and 1824, and in Susan Decatur's name thereafter until 1864.

10 Clothing Department Warehouses, 1864. [item 23, NA-RG92]

11 John Knower's purchase was made as early as 1869, but no later than 1871. District of Columbia, General Assessments 1864 and 1869. Knower's name is pencilled in next to Sherwood's in the 1869 entry for an unimproved lot.

12 General Assessments, 1869-71.

13 A published account of the building when it was used as the temporary White House in 1902 noted that the house had been 'built for Mrs. Marcy, widow of William 1. Marcy. The Churchman, June 19, 1903.

14 Boyd's, 1871 through 1875. The 1871 edition lists her at '720 Jackson Place,' which is probably a typographical error.

15 Boyd's, 1880, 1884.

16 General Assessments, 18W-87 and 1889-90 list Knower and Scott, respectively, as the owners.

17 Boyd's, 1890-1891.

18 The location of the areaway, estimated to cost $100, was not ldenffied, and the existing building was not described in the permit [District of Columbia] Inspector of Buildings, Permit for Repair, Alterations, etc., No. 1196, November 28, 1887.

19 The directories list W. M. M. Townsend at 20 Lafayette Square in 1892, and Richard Townsend thereafter through 1899. Boyd's, 1892 through 1899.

20 [District of Columbia] Inspector of Buildings, Permit for Repair, Alterations, etc., No. 55, July 10, 1895.

21 When the building was later sold to the Woman's City Club, it was described as having an existing 'auditorium which will accommodate several hundred and which is also obtainable for dances and balls....' Woman's City Club Plans for Addition, undated clipping from unidentified Washington newspaper, [c1919]. [MLK-Washl

22 A permit for a vault, measuring 12'0' by 8'6', 7 feet deep, to be constructed in 25 foot alley near lot 37, and accompanied by a letter of consent from neighbor Charles C. Glover, was subsequently granted. [District of Columbia] Inspector of Buildings, Special Permit for Projection beyond the Building Line, No number, November 30, 1895.

23 The plot, measuring 25 x 50 feet, filled in the northwest comer of the Townsend property. It had earlier been platted as the south branch of the rear alley entered from Pennsylvania Avenue which was ordered closed by the Board of Public Works on December 12, 1873. Arguing that her property had enjoyed the uninterrupted use of the plot for nearly 25 years, the petition raised the issue of ownership of the District's alleys. House of Representatives, 55th Congress, 2d Session. Report No. 747 (to accompany H.R. 9035), March 17, 1898.

24 The temporary Executive mansion in Washington, unidentified clipping June 2 1902. [MLK- Wash]

25 Back to the Old White House: Temporary Executive mansion in Jackson Place, Washington, Abandoned by President, The New York Times, November 2, 1902.

26 Recounted in White House Repairs and a Sit of Local History, clipping from unintelligible Washington newspaper, June 23, 1926 [MLK-Wash], Jean White, Jackson Place Served as Site for Temporary White House, Washington Post and Evening Telegram, March 11, 1957.

27 Morison, p. 819.

28 Permit Number 62508, June 28, 1908. The project was estimated to cost $100.

29 Permit was for a 'Steel-Cole' garage costing $150. PermitNumber 241914, February 4, 1914.

30 On acquiring the building, the Club immediately began discussing plans for a new addition at the rear to house a larger auditorium, gymnasium, swimming pool and bowing alley. 'Women's City Club Plans for Addition,' undated clipping from unidentified Washington newspaper, [cl9l9] [MLK-Wash]. These plans appear to have been abandoned, for no building permits were recorded for such work.

31 Building Division, District of Columbia. Permit to Repair, No. 126892, September 4, 1929. A related permit identified additional unspecified 'minor non-structural alterations,' and 'cut certain openings in interior and exterior brick walls in premises (no party walls).' Building Division, District of Columbia. Permit to Repair, No. 126892, September 4, 1929. Both permits were accompanied by plans. The total project, estimated to cost $4,000, was to be built by W. E. Mooney.

32 Richard B. Morris, Encyclopedia of American History, New York, 1953 p. 636
32 'Acquired by Lutheran Missions Group,' Washington Post, February 20, 1944.

33 Department of Building Inspection, District of Columbia. Permit to Install Plumbing, Number 26W92, February 8, 1944; Repair Permit, Number 306556, May 13, 1948, 'to enclose stairways and fire proof building necessary to make existing building into office building as per plans' by architect L Morris Leisenring, Repair Permit, Number 309375, July 2-2, 1948, to repair vault for boiler and install new concrete roof;'

34 Misc. Permit, Number 309640, July 28, 1948, 'to extend existing fire escape on 2nd and 3rd floors." 736 Jackson Place N.W.,' Washington Star, November 5, 1955.

35 Lutherans Sell Historic House, Washington Post, August 16, 1956.

36 GSA News Release, GSA-545, January 30, 1957 [NA, RG 66, Box 41

37 Old and New, Washington Star, March 7, 1957, Jean White

38 Threat of Change looms over Lafayette Square, Washington Post, March 9, 1957, p. A8.

40 Plans for Addition, undated clipping from unidentified Washington newspaper, [cl 91 91 [MLK- Wash].

41 Willensky and White, pp. 369-370.

42 Scott and Lee, pp. 331-332.

43 Scott and Lee, pp. 357.

44 Scott and Lee, pp. 135, 302.

45 Scott and Lee, pp. 47, 51, 122-123, 132, 174, and 307

46 "Leisering, Luther Morris, F.A.I.A., Washington, D.C.," typescript, no date. [AIA Archives]