The Brodhead-Bell-Morton mansion just northeast of Scott Circle is architecturally significant for its grand Beaux-Arts style. It speaks to a time — the turn of the 20th century — when Massachusetts Avenue NW, 16th Street, and the nearby Dupont Circle neighborhood were a center of Washington's wealth. Although it was originally designed by John Fraser and constructed in the late-1870s/early-1880s, it was heavily remodeled in 1912 and the one-time Queen Anne style home is no longer recognizable.
John Russell Pope, a highly-regarded architect of the period, designed the remodel. Pope designed many DC buildings that are now historic landmarks. Most famously, he designed the Jefferson Memorial, as well as the National Archives, National Gallery of Art, Constitution Hall, and the Scottish Rite Temple.
At 1500 Rhode Island Avenue NW, Pope designed a four-story, trapezoidal mansion, with a porte-cochere and round arched windows. The building has limestone cladding, and a notable cornice and balustered parapet. There are other intricate details, such as quoins on the first-floor and a carved shell on the facade's third-floor.
The name of the mansion is a reference to the original owners, John T. and Jessie Willis Brodhead, and subsequent owners, Alexander Graham Bell (inventor) and Levi P. Morton (Vice President, 1889-93). Vice President Morton is credited with hiring Pope for the mansion's remodel. Prior to the building's commercial use, various other important individuals lived here, including a congressman, Russian ambassador, and secretary of state.
From 1940 to 2016, it was occupied by the American Coatings Association (the trade associaiton had various names over the decades). It was then purchased and restored by the nation of Hungary, and the former mansion is now the Embassy of Hungary. During the restoration, a wall was added to the east elevation.
DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
National Register: October 14, 1987
]]>Built from 1881 to 1882 and designed by architect John Fraser, this house was the residence of James G. Blaine until 1883. Blaine served as Secretary of State under Presidents Garfield and Harrison and later became the first President of the Pan-American Congress. Blaine was the Republican presidential nominee in 1884. He had previously served as Speaker of the US House and as a US Senator from Maine.
The house is the only surviving example of the large mansions, built during the late 1800s, that once surrounded Dupont Circle. After Blaine, the house's other notable owner was inventor and entrepreneur George Westinghouse, who bought the home in 1901 and resided there until his death in 1914.
DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
Within Dupont Circle and Massachusetts Avenue Historic Districts
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