On this site was the home of Robert Sewall. It was built in 1800 and house a variety of politicians, including Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin. It was at this house that Gallatin arranged the Louisiana Purchase. When the British invaded in Washington in 1814, someone inside fired at the British soldiers, killing the horse of General Robert Ross. The house was promptly burned down.
The house was rebuilt and eventually bought by Alva Belmont in 1929. Belmont was a women suffragist who helped found the National Woman's Rally in 1913 and organized a rally in Washington that year to gain women the right to vote. Belmont gave the house to the National Women's Party in 1929, when they were forced to vacate its headquarters at the Old Brick Capitol (where the Supreme Court now stands). Today, the house displays a variety of artifacts from various female leaders.
The Folger Shakespeare Library, funded by oil magnate Henry Clay Folger, was opened to the public in 1932. The library holds a the world's large collection of Shakespearean literature and related items. One of the high points in the library's history took place in the spring of 1991, when Queen Elizabeth II made a visit. Also in early 1991, the Folger Shakespeare theater company that performed on its stage, relocated to a larger theater downtown.
Senator Joseph McCarthy lived in an apartment at this site, masterminding the Red Scare of the early 1950s. McCarthy claimed that he had a long list of "known Communists" in the federal government and used the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) to interview a number of people. The 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings, which took place in the Senate Office Buildings, led to his downfall.
In 1953, McCarthy and his family moved to a duplex at 335 C Street SE, his last residence. McCarthy died in 1957.
This house was the home to abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass after he relocated in 1870 to edit The New National Era. Douglass, a former slave, escaped north in 1838 to become a famous anti-slavery lecturer and government official. In 1878, Douglass moved to Cedar Hill, located across the Anacostia River. This home was transformed into a historic house museum and was the first home of the Museum of African Art. In 1979, the museum was absorbed into the Smithsonian Institution and in 1988, the museum moved to larger quarters on the Mall.
Sites a bit further from the Capitol
