The Washington Meridian

l’enfant’s plan Original plan for the city of Washington, D.C., by Pierre Charles L’Enfant, 1794. The plan stops along the northern Boundary Street, just below the area that would come to be known as Meridian Hill as the city developed in the 19th and 20th centuries.

search of more enemy ships, he came across the Marquesas Islands north of Polynesia and took possession of the island of Nuku Hiva, renaming it Madison Island and intending to bring its people into the “great American family.” 4 Though this annexation was never seriously pursued, this was an unprecedented act that established Porter as essentially the U.S. Navy’s first imperialist. 5 As early as 1815, he had proposed a naval mission to Japan to open its trade with the West, a suggestion that influenced the organization of Commodore Matthew Perry’s famous expedition. Despite his successes in the war, a relentless British attack on the Essex at Valparaíso, Chile, forced Porter to surrender and flee, but the battle would be remembered as “one of the most desperate and remarkable in naval history.” 6 After one other defeat, in which Porter was taken prisoner and managed to escape, he arrived back in New York, where his countrymen received him with honor. Porter made it to Washington in 1814, just in time to play an instrumental role in driving the British out of the city. He was then appointed as a commissioner of the Navy Board in 1815, a new administrative body composed of the most esteemed and accomplished naval officers. Having accumulated a significant amount of prize money during his adventures at sea and wanting to settle down on a property “commensurate with his social position,” 7 Porter set his sights on the hill one mile due north of the White House, the highest point in the District. “So rolling was the contour of the meadows that their appeal to the eye of a sailor ashore was irresistible,” 8 and so in 1816, he purchased a 110-acre farm for

floor plans Floor plans of the first and second levels of the WhiteMeyer House. Facing elevations Line drawings of the north and south façades of the White-Meyer House, located at 1624 Crescent Place.

Diplomacy and Design

John Russell Pope’s mastery of residential architecture is evident in two stately mansions on Meridian Hill, built side by side on Crescent Place as homes for a pair of accomplished American diplomats. As Meridian Hill grew into its role as Washington’s first Embassy Row, it began to attract more globally minded citizens, and in January 1910, Ambassador Henry White, former Ambassador to Italy and France, purchased a 1.5-acre plot of land just north of Henderson’s Castle and asked Pope to design for him and his wife a grand residence in the Georgian-Italianate Style, with sweeping views of the capital. The lot was “a most desirable location,” 1 just across from the proposed park and near the summit of Meridian Hill, with vistas to the south so supreme that despite the construction of townhomes in the late 20th century, they have remained unobstructed at the second-floor level. The property had previously been home to Joaquin Miller, an eccentric character from California better known as the “Poet of the Sierras.” After moving to Washington with the intention of getting involved in politics, he built his rustic-style log cabin on the property in 1883, only to find Washington too crowded and headed back west two years later. When Henry White purchased the lot, Miller’s cabin, considered a rare example of vernacular architecture in the city, was preserved and moved to its present location in Rock Creek Park by the California State Society in 1912.

White’s reason for choosing Pope to design his home is not clear, but Pope’s reputation in Washington at that time had certainly grown after his completion of the Robert R. Hitt house in Dupont Circle, which “set a new standard for residential design in Washington by bringing this cosmopolitan European arrangement to an American house,” 2 as well as his involvement in the Lincoln Memorial and Temple of the Scottish Rite commissions. The White home would be his next big project and would reinforce his position as one of the leading residential architects in the city.

foyer, 1929 This foyer is very much as it was originally. Other than two large tapestries beside each staircase (not pictured) that have since been removed, much of the decor remains, including the wrought-iron and marble-topped tables, lighting fixtures and two statues near the top of the stairs that depict Pan, the Roman god of the wild, and Pomona, Roman goddess of fruitful abundance.