Architectural Design

Dr. William Thornton (May 20, 1759 – March 28, 1828) was a British-American physician, inventor, painter and architect.  But as family friend, he played his favorite role as architect and designed the house we know today.   In his plans for Tudor Place, Thornton expressed Palladio’s forms in a distinctly Federal, American style, melding French-influenced romantic classicism with traditional English forms. Thornton’s drawings drew upon Neoclassical ideas of proportion and balance popularized by Andrea Palladio, whose seminal 16th-century publication, Quattro Libri dell’ Architettura (The Four Books on Architecture) strongly influenced 18th- and early 19th-century American design.

The house’s five-part structure, with two-story central block and low hyphens connecting to higher, two-story wings, followed a form immensely popular in the Chesapeake region during the Federal period.

The house’s most architecturally significant feature is the domed, marble-floored Temple Portico. Unlike the more common half-round porches attached to exterior walls of many early 19th-century houses, Thornton’s circular structure extends into the house itself, with a curved wall of floor-to-ceiling windows serving as a transition between interior spaces and the garden.  It is the only known full temple portico embedded into a U.S. residence, and the only one still standing today.  The exterior of the brick house Thornton clad in stucco scored to resemble blocks of finished stone, a common Federal Period technique. This was coated with a golden limewash, against which scored lines in the stucco were picked out with white lime to resemble stonework joints.

Work began with renovation of the existing wings and construction of the hyphens, proceeding last to the center block, and was largely finished in 1816.

Interior Features & Rooms

While its principal footprint remained largely unchanged, the house’s interior configuration and uses evolved as needs changed over time. In the 178 years that elapsed between its completion in 1816 and its transfer to foundation ownership, the house had just four proprietors, all in one family line. Their periods of occupancy and management provide a way to understand changes in the house’s structure and uses.

As was the norm for homes of the Federal period, the floor plan reflects a pronounced public-private divide. Guests came into the house through the double doors of the austere north entry and encountered soaring 15-foot tall ceilings as they passed through the vestibule directly into the impressive Saloon. Here they were greeted by an expansive southern vista over the port of Georgetown and, on either side, grand reception rooms, or double parlors.

Within the entrance vestibule, double doors to the left opened to the main staircase and bedrooms above, while matching doors to the right led to the service wing of the house. Few visitors to the home would ever have seen these utilitarian and private spaces, spending their time instead in the grand Saloon, Parlor, and Drawing Room. These three principal rooms together constituted one of the largest private entertaining suites in Georgetown or the Federal City.

Rather than being interpreted to reflect a single era, the rooms of Tudor Place are furnished as they appeared during the occupancy of the last owners, Armistead Peter 3rd and his wife Caroline, from the early 1920s to 1983.

Certain spaces, such as a second-floor bedroom, are furnished to convey a particular theme, such as childhood and education at the turn of the 20th century. Through six generations, Peter family descendants mixed new furnishings with inherited objects, taking great care to preserve the historic fabric of the original design. The most notable changes occurred in the 1913-1914 renovations undertaken by third owner Armistead Peter Jr. and his wife, Anna.