People On The Move In Washington D.C.
WASHINGTON BUSINESS JOURNAL
Washington Business Journal highlights Tudor Place Executive Director Mary-Frances Wain.
Read the feature here.
Tudor Place is open Tuesday – Saturday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. and Sunday Noon – 4 p.m.
Trust Americans To Learn from The Past
A joint statement by the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH), Organization of American Historians (OAH), Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), Association of African American Museums (AAAM), and National Council on Public History (NCPH)
National Park Service (NPS) sites are being forced to remove historical content that the White House views as “negative about either past or living Americans.” This top-down directive erases people and events that do not fit within a narrow, triumphalist view of history.
What makes this erasure even more alarming is that the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), which runs NPS, is couching its censorship efforts in the very terms that historians and educators often use to explain their own work. Federal officials are eliminating the experiences of Native Americans, African Americans, women, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and others from history while calling it—to quote a DOI spokesperson—“honest, respectful storytelling” that “honor[s] the complexity of our nation’s shared journey.” In fact, they are doing the opposite. And requiring knowledgeable NPS staff to attribute these alterations to the White House’s interest in “historical accuracy” is doubly deceptive and contrary to the professional standards by which historians conduct their work.
Our country’s 433 NPS sites, which serve millions of visitors per year, are just the starting point for this skewed approach to history, but they will not be the last. Recent pressure on the Smithsonian Institution, National Endowment for the Humanities, Institute for Museum and Library Services, and others show just how far this administration is willing to go to distort the past toward ideological aims in the present. This drive to sanitize and warp history endangers vital sources of public knowledge, from state and local history museums to social studies classrooms to libraries.
The administration’s directive ignores our field’s scholarship and the will of the American people, who have repeatedly said they want to explore the nation’s history in all of its depth and complexity. The directive removes crucial context that audiences need for a fuller understanding of the past and its relevance to today. It is also an affront to the public’s right to think for itself.
We urge our members and the public to visit NPS sites, leave supportive comments on the NPS Feedback Form, and contact your state, local, and national representatives about your support for NPS sites and a full, honest, approach to our collective history. (The National Parks Conservation Association provides a form here for contacting Members of Congress.)
published by the AASLH on August 7, 2025
Press Release: Tudor Place Announces Travelers’ Choice Award by Tripadvisor
Press Release
May 18, 2021
Washington, DC – Tudor Place Historic House & Garden announces it has been recognized as a 2020 Travelers’ Choice award winner by TripAdvisor. Based on a full year of TripAdvisor reviews prior to any changes caused by the pandemic, award winners are known for consistency receiving great traveler feedback, placing them in the top 10% of hospitality business around the globe.
Read the full press release here.
Washington’s Revolutionary War Encampment at Tudor Place
3 Ways to Cover “The First Oval Office” in its Sole D.C. Appearance
(L) Washington’s Revolutionary War Encampment in 2015 (credit: The First Oval Office). (R) First Oval Office watercolor by Peter Waddell.
media advisory |
contact |
| April 24, 2016 | Communications Director Mandy Katz Bicentennial Communications Assistant Jen Pollakusy |
| mobile: 202.486.7645 press@tudorplace.org, bicentennial@tudorplace.org |
A Tudor Place Bicentennial Event
George Washington Parke Custis’s most famous acquisition from his grandparents’ home at Mount Vernon was Gen. Washington’s Revolutionary War “marquee,” a hard-used tent in which Custis hosted parties and commemorations. But Custis’s Lee descendants lost it when they sided with the Confederacy, and after the Federal government took the tent for safekeeping, it took Lees descendants more than a century to reclaim it, later selling it for public exhibition. While the original undergoes conservation, reproductions of Washington’s headquarters tent and the dining tent that stood alongside are on tour, coming to just one site in the capital region for just one weekend, and featured during two public events.
Washington, DC –On April 29 and 30, George Washington’s Revolutionary War headquarters and dining tents will be the site of three novel events at Tudor Place in Georgetown, during the exhibition’s only stop in the Washington, D.C., region. On the Tudor Place South Lawn, visitors can tour the scrupulous reproduction of “The First Oval Office” and many of its furnishings, experiencing the linen-walled spaces where General Washington and his staff slept, ate, and strategized during critical moments of the Revolutionary War.
Tudor Place has invited the public to view the tent in an adults-only “sneak peak” evening party, April 29, and a day-long “encampment,” April 30, featuring the tents, colonial crafts and activities, and story-telling and history discussion about the roles of women and African-Americans during the Revolutionary War. Also April 30, a private dinner for donors, served in the tent, will feature a menu and entertainment reminiscent of how Washington would have dined.
WHAT
Special exhibition of the dining marquee, office, and sleeping quarters that served as George Washington’s Revolutionary War headquarters. The tents will open first for a “Sneak Peek” Tudor Nights cocktail party for adults, Friday evening, April 29, with appearance by costumed interpreter “Mrs. Martha Peter,” founder of Tudor Place, who will chat and answer questions about life on the estate, 18th-19th century politics and events, and early times in the nation’s capital. On Saturday, April 30, guests of all ages can tour the tents during the Revolutionary War Encampment program with activities and features including Mrs. Peter and soldier-enactors, storytelling, and colonial crafts.Saturday evening, April 30, donors will enjoy a historically themed private banquet served in Washington’s reproduction dining tent.
Press are invited to cover any or all three of these events.
WHEN
- 6:30 – 8:30 pm, Friday, April 29 (Tudor Nights “Sneak Peak” private event)
- 10 am – 4 pm, Saturday, April 30 (public viewing)
- 6 pm, Saturday, April 30 (private donor banquet)
WHERE
Tudor Place
1644 31st St. NW
Washington, DC 20007
FEATURING
- Revolutionary War Encampment featuring George Washington’s Revolutionary headquarters marquee and accompanying dining and baggage tent
- Costumed interpreters to include Tudor Place founder “Mrs. Martha Peter,” played by award-winning actress and Smithsonian scholar Mary Ann Jung (Friday evening + Saturday afternoon), and two costumed revolutionary war interpreters (Saturday daytime).
- In the HQ tent, furnishings including reproductions of Gen. Washington’s traveling camp stools based on the original in the collection at Tudor Place, one of two remaining from the original set of 18.
- Candle-making and tea-blending demonstrations and activities (Saturday daytime)
- Interactive storytelling and discussion about roles of women and African Americans in the Revolutionary War (Saturday daytime)
- Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, tours of the tent and garden strolls by twilight, and conversation with Mrs. Peter during the Tudor Nights Tent “Sneak Peek” (Friday evening)
- Gala sit-down dinner catered with a menu based on cuisine Washington and his officers would have recognized (Saturday evening)
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1st Annual Tree Fest Celebrates the Tudor Place Canopy
March 29, 2014 | 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Register Now
The shelter and dignity of the property’s historic trees — and the risks they face from the violent weather of recent years — have inspired a new event at Tudor Place: a Tree Fest, free and open to the public. Our local environment and the canopy of heritage trees are the focus, and there will be something for everyone!
- An artisanal Market Fair offering sustainable merchandise and information from people and organizations working on behalf of the environment and landscape.
- For families, puppet shows at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., and games and crafts all day.
- A 1 p.m. guided walk with tree expert Melanie Choukas-Bradley, author of City of Trees, will help you learn to understand and identify local species.
- A chance to say “hello” to the newly planted white oak tree! It replaces the two-century-old specimen lost last year to age and storm damage and represents Tudor Place’s ongoing investment in the tall trees of tomorrow.
NOTE: Public transportation recommended. Tudor Place is easily reached by bus, Metro and a short walk, and bicycle (including Bike Share).
Vendor Information
Now taking vendor registrations for October! The Tree Fest is fully subscribed, but we are taking registrations from vendors and organizations now for the October 18 Fall Harvest Fest, also free and open to the public. Are you a talented regional artisan or food purveyor? Do you have crafts, merchandise, creative eats, and/or useful information to offer? Please contact us today!
Special for “Where” Readers: 20% off Tours!
WHERE IS WASHINGTON’S BEST DEAL ON HISTORY TOURS?
Here — at Tudor Place!
Use promo code “WHERE” when booking to receive 20% off regular guided tours.
