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TUDOR PLACE | OPEN Thursday – Sunday. Proof of full vaccination required. Click for tickets & info.

The Historic House

Virtual Tour

Take a peek at the interior of the historic house and some of the intriguing items in the collection.

Schedule a visit and discover some of the stories behind the items featured on this tour as well as other objects on display.

Interior Features & Rooms

Peter family guests would enter the house through the double doors of the north entry and encounter soaring 15-foot-tall ceilings in the Vestibule. Passing through the Vestibule into the Saloon, guests could gaze through Thornton’s floor-to-ceiling windows at a vista that included the port of Georgetown. On either side of the Saloon sit the Parlor and Drawing Room. Peek inside the rooms shown below and learn interesting tidbits of history.  Click for videos.

Stair hall (west view). Photo: Bruce White

Vestibule. Photo: Bruce White

Vestibule. Photo: Bruce White

Temple Portico (interior view).

Temple Portico (exterior view).

Drawing Room. Photo: Bruce White

Parlor. Photo: Bruce White

Dining Room. Photo: Bruce White

Office. Photo: Bruce White

Butler’s Pantry.

Bell Hall.

Kitchen.

Historic House

In 1805 Thomas and Martha Parke Custis Peter purchased Tudor Place. The Peters then asked their friend, the self-taught architect Dr. William Thornton (1759-1828), to design a home for the property.

A typical Federal-period home, the floor plan reflects a pronounced public-private divide.  For example, Peter family guests would enter the house through the double doors of the north entry into the Vestibule. Within the Vestibule, double doors to the left open to the main staircase and bedrooms above, while matching doors to the right lead to the service wing of the house. Few guests would ever have seen these utilitarian and private spaces.

In the early American republic, the founding generation consciously chose to associate the nation with the ancient democracies of Greece and the republican values of Rome. Using Roman architectural vocabulary, the Federal style applied to the balanced and symmetrical version of Georgian architecture that had been practiced in the American colonies’ new motifs of neoclassical architecture, which was epitomized in Britain by Robert Adam, who published his designs in 1792.

Today the rooms appear as they did during the period of the last owners, Armistead Peter 3rd and his wife, Caroline, who displayed new furnishings alongside the inherited objects of six generations who lived here from 1805-1983.

Architectural Design

Dr. William Thornton (1759-1828), a family friend, designed the house. 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.

The house’s five-part structure, with a 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 (c. 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815).

The most architecturally significant feature is the domed, marble-floored Temple Portico. Thornton’s circular structure extends into the house itself, with curved, wall-to-floor ceiling windows serving as a transition between interior spaces and the exterior sprawling South Lawn. The exterior of the brick house was clad in stucco, scored to resemble blocks of finished stone, a common Federal period technique.

In Their Words

Led by the voices of Britannia Wellington Peter Kennon, the second owner of Tudor Place; and her great-grandson, Armistead Peter 3rd, take a leisurely stroll through this National Historic Landmark.

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  • Slavery at Tudor Place
  • Domestic Servants

WHAT'S NEW

In The News

Tudor Place’s Little Free Library in the news

August 4, 2022/in Press Room, Tudor Place In The News /by Janet Wall
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https://tudorplace.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2020-01-23-300x155.png 0 0 Janet Wall https://tudorplace.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2020-01-23-300x155.png Janet Wall2022-08-04 16:22:562022-08-15 16:29:57Tudor Place's Little Free Library in the news

From The Blog

Rethinking the story of Orton Williams and Walter G. Peter

July 11, 2022/in Blog, Civil War, DC History, Peter family /by Comms2018
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https://tudorplace.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2020-01-23-300x155.png 0 0 Comms2018 https://tudorplace.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2020-01-23-300x155.png Comms20182022-07-11 15:27:112022-07-11 15:27:11Rethinking the story of Orton Williams and Walter G. Peter

Education at Home

Craft: Bee Finger Puppet

August 2, 2022/in Education at Home, teachingtuesday /by Janet Wall
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https://tudorplace.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2020-01-23-300x155.png 0 0 Janet Wall https://tudorplace.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2020-01-23-300x155.png Janet Wall2022-08-02 12:35:042022-08-15 16:34:46Craft: Bee Finger Puppet

Summer Saturdays: Outdoor Art

May 31, 2022
August 20, 2022
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https://tudorplace.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Summer-Saturdays-Outdoor-Art-scaled.jpg 1707 2560 Comms2018 https://tudorplace.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2020-01-23-300x155.png Comms20182022-05-31 15:35:042022-08-05 18:56:42Summer Saturdays: Outdoor Art

Landmark Lecture: Enslaved and Free Black Artisans and the Built Environment of the District of Columbia

January 29, 2022
September 13, 2022
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https://tudorplace.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Fig.-2.28-Maclean_Sam-Collins-Design-scaled.jpg 1440 2560 Janet Wall https://tudorplace.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2020-01-23-300x155.png Janet Wall2022-01-29 14:17:102022-03-05 10:18:05Landmark Lecture: Enslaved and Free Black Artisans and the Built Environment of the District of Columbia

Tudor Tots: Why do Leaves Change Colors?

August 5, 2022
September 14, 2022
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https://tudorplace.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Tots-Leaves-1-scaled.jpg 1702 2560 Comms2018 https://tudorplace.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2020-01-23-300x155.png Comms20182022-08-05 14:03:572022-08-06 15:09:09Tudor Tots: Why do Leaves Change Colors?

Tudor Nights: Hygiene History in the Peter Household

January 20, 2022
September 15, 2022
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https://tudorplace.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Tudor-Nights_Bathroom-new-scaled.jpg 2560 1920 Janet Wall https://tudorplace.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2020-01-23-300x155.png Janet Wall2022-01-20 17:18:372022-08-06 14:31:29Tudor Nights: Hygiene History in the Peter Household
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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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Open Thursday – Sunday | Proof of full vaccination required upon entry.

Timed entry tickets for guided tours; suggested donation. Click for info

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

  • Facebook
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  • LinkedIn
  • Youtube
  • Pinterest
  • About

    • Our Story
    • Staff & Leadership
    • Jobs, Internships & Volunteering
    • For Neighbors
    • Annual Reports
  • Visit

    • Plan Your Visit
    • Parking & Directions
    • FAQ & Accessibility
    • Reserve Tickets
    • Group Tours
  • Calendar

  • Museum & Collection

    • History
    • Collection
    • Slavery at Tudor Place
    • Domestic Servants
    • Archive
  • Garden

    • History
    • Explore
    • What’s Blooming
  • Other

    • Rentals
    • Support
    • Education
    • Virtual Library
    • Preservation
    • Contact
    • Tickets
    • Donate
    • Membership
    • Shop

Open Thursday – Sunday | Proof of full vaccination required upon entry.

Timed entry tickets for guided tours; suggested donation. Click for info

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

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