Anderson House
Anderson House is the Beaux-Arts style mansion of a former American diplomat and his wife
Anderson House was built as the winter home of Larz and Isabel Anderson, an American Diplomat and children’s author respectively. It looks like something you would expect to find in Europe, not Washington, DC.
Visitors can take guided tours of the house and learn about both the Andersons as well as the Society of the Cincinnati. Moving between rooms, the guides use the art and collections of the Andersons to share about the history of the house and its former owners.
The crowning jewel of the house is the painting on the landing of the Great Stairs, “The Triumph of the Dogaressa.” It is so large, the Andersons had to request their architect design a wall large enough to display it in the house.
While the tour itself felt a bit long, I fell in love with the story of Larz and Isabel. The quirky couple filled their home with art from around the world and used it as a canvas to share their own story. I decided I wanted the Andersons as friends when I learned that the couple created their own flag – red with a brown horse. Their favorite pets (both birds) are painted into the murals in the winter garden. They also created their own insignia with the letters L and I and had it used in the decorative ceilings around the house.
In a nod to the Andersons’ cosmopolitan tastes, the buddha statue that now sits in the Hoyt Garden used to greet visitors in the Entrance Hall.
After Larz’s death, Isabel donated the house to the Society of Cincinnati, a hereditary organization dedicated to preserving the memory of the Revolutionary War. The Society now uses Anderson House as their national headquarters where they also present exhibitions and other programming to educate the public about the Revolutionary War.
Since Anderson House is free to tour all year round, I recommended avoiding it during Passport DC (usually the first two Saturdays in May) and the Dupont-Kalorama Museums Consortium Walk Weekend (usually the first weekend in June) as it will be much more crowded during these events.
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Address
2118 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Metro Station
- Dupont Circle (RD)
Accessibility
Anderson House has a ramp to the left of the main entrance to accommodate wheelchairs. The first floor is wheelchair and walker friendly. However, the elevators to the second floor are very small and only fit a manual wheelchair. Anderson House does offer a loaner wheelchair that fits in the elevator for those who care to transfer into it.
Cost
Free
Hours
Tuesday to Saturday from 1:00 am – 4:00 pm
Sunday from 12:00 – 4:00 pm
Tours begin 15 minutes past each hour and last approximately one hour.
Length of Adventure
1 hour
