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The Historic House
Architectural Design
Dr. William Thornton (May 20, 1759 – March 28, 1828) was a British-American physician, inventor, painter and architect. As a 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 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 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 finished in 1816.
Interior Features & Rooms
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.
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. Through six generations, Peter family descendants mixed new furnishings with inherited objects, taking great care to preserve the historic fabric of the original design.
Take a virtual tour with Executive Director Mark Hudson, as he walks you through the Historic House and around 5 1/2 acres of this national landmark.




SLAVERY AT TUDOR PLACE
As an historic site that bears the scars of slavery, Tudor Place seeks to look this injustice in the eye. Click here to learn more.
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Museum & Collection
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SUGGESTED DONATION
Book online or call for tickets | Reservation with Timed Ticket Entry Required

1644 31st Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007
202-965-0400 | info@tudorplace.org
Calendar
Museum & Collection
Garden
SUGGESTED TOUR DONATION
Book online or call for tickets | Reservation with Timed Ticket Entry Required

1644 31st Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007
202-965-0400 | info@tudorplace.org