ABOUT DUMBARTON HOUSE

MISSION STATEMENT: The mission of the Dumbarton House museum, a Federal Period historic house, ca. 1800, is to preserve the historic structure and its collections and to educate the public about life in Washington, D.C., during the early years of the Republic. Emphasis is placed on Joseph Nourse, first Register of the Treasury, and his family, and their occupation of the property from 1804 through 1813.

Dumbarton House is a fine example of Federal period architecture and offers visitors to Washington, D.C., a unique opportunity to enhance their appreciation of early American history. Closely connected to the first years of the American Republic, the house has stood on the heights of Georgetown for over two centuries

The land on which Dumbarton House was built lay within a 795 acre tract of land in Maryland patented in 1703 by an immigrant Scot, Ninian Beall. Beall named this property "Rock of Dumbarton" in tribute to his homeland. The town of Georgetown was chartered in 1751 on part of the original Beall property. In1798 Samuel Jackson, a merchant from Philadelphia, bought 4.5 acres of "Rock of Dumbarton" on Cedar Hill, on which he built the home that he originally called Belle View. Jackson mortgaged the property, and the mortgage was acquired by the United States, which sold the house in 1804 at public auction, shortly after which it was bought by Joseph Nourse, first Register of the U.S. Treasury. Nourse made additional improvements to the house and grounds, and he and his family lived there from 1804-1813. In 1813, Charles Carroll bought the house from Joseph Nourse. During Carroll's residence, the house would host Dolley Madison on August 24, 1814, during her flight from the White House and British invaders.

In 1915, when the Dumbarton ("Q Street") Bridge was built over Rock Creek, the house was moved 100 feet to its present site, to allow for the extension of Q Street into Georgetown. The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America (The NSCDA) purchased the house in 1928 and restored it to its early 19th-century character, changing the house’s name to "Dumbarton House." The NSCDA declared Dumbarton House its national headquarters and opened it as a museum to the public in 1932.

To celebrate its centennial in 1991, The NSCDA renovated Dumbarton House, and restored features identified over the previous six decades. Updates were added, such as modern climate control to the house; compliance with contemporary fire, safety, and accessibility codes; enlargement of the premises, the creation of a banquet/meeting space and outdoor terraces and gardens that now allow a variety of educational programs, as well as civic, private, and organizational events.

Today Dumbarton House is one of the few stately brick homes in Washington to survive the heady days when the country and its capital were new. The design of the house reflects the shift from Georgian tradition to the Adamesque Federal style that would take hold as the new republic defined itself. From the parlor to the dining room, through the music room to the bedrooms upstairs, visitors to Dumbarton House today see a wealth of furniture, paintings, textiles, silver, and ceramics that were made and used in the republic’s formative years.