Walsh-McLean House (Indonesian Embassy)
This grand and eclectic mansion, once part of DC high society, now serves as the Embassy of Indonesia.
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The Walsh-McLean House is an eclectic mansion with Renaissance, Baroque, Louis XVI and Art Nouveau elements and designed by Danish-born and New York architect Henry Anderson in 1903. The house is one of many magnificent mansions constructed in the early 1900s in this area of Massachusetts Avenue near Dupont Circle. The house was built for Thomas F. Walsh, owner of the Camp Bird Mine in Ouray, Colorado, and reputed to be one of the richest men in the world. Later, the house served as the residence of his daughter, Evalyn Walsh McLean, society figure and owner of the Hope Diamond. She lived there with her husband, Edward B. McLean, who was the editor of the Washington Post and an influential Republican. The house was purchased by the Indonesian government in 1951 and continues to serve as the Indonesian Embassy.
The mansion sits on a stone-faced base of rusticated granite capped by a blind limestone balustrade. The upper walls of glazed tan Roman brick are divided by two limestone string courses. The house also features undulating buff brick, limestone, and terra cotta facades. The interiors include an elaborate "steamship" stair hall, a skylit organ room, parlors, and a conservatory.
DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
National Register: January 18, 1973
