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Anderson House
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Exterior view of the Anderson House
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| Location: | 2118 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. |
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| Built: | 1902–1905 |
| Architect: | Little & Browne |
| Architectural style: | Beaux-Arts |
| Governing body: | Private |
| Part of: | Massachusetts Avenue Historic District (#74002166) |
| NRHP Reference#: | 71000993[1] |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP: | April 7, 1971 |
| Designated NHL: | June 19, 1996[2] |
Anderson House, also known as Larz Anderson House, located at 2118 Massachusetts Avenue, NW in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., houses the Society's national headquarters, historic house museum, and research library on Embassy Row – the most fashionable avenue in turn-of-the-century Washington—and across the street from the famed academic social circle, the Cosmos Club. Anderson House was built between 1902 and 1905 as the winter residence of Larz Anderson, an American diplomat, and his wife, Isabel Weld Perkins, an author and American Red Cross volunteer. Architects Arthur Little and Herbert Browne of Boston, Massachusetts designed Anderson House in the Beaux-Arts style.
The Andersons used the house to entertain the social and political elite of America and abroad, as well as to showcase their collection of fine art and historic artifacts that the couple acquired in their extensive travels. The Andersons had no children. Following Larz Anderson's death in 1937, his widow donated the Anderson House and its contents to the Society of the Cincinnati, of which Larz Anderson had been a devoted member for more than forty years. The Society opened Anderson House as a museum in 1939. Anderson House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and was further designated a National Historic Landmark in 1996.[2][1]
Today, Anderson House continues to serve its members and the public as a headquarters, museum, and library. Visitors to the museum at Anderson House can tour the first two floors of the house, decorated with the Andersons' collection and interpreted to illuminate the world of entertaining and collecting in Washington, and can also view changing exhibitions devoted to the history of the American Revolution, the Society of the Cincinnati, and Anderson House and its occupants. In addition to the Andersons' original collection, the Society's museum collections include portraits, armaments, and personal artifacts of Revolutionary War soldiers; commemorative objects made to remember the war and its participants; objects associated with the history of the Society and its members, including Society of the Cincinnati china and insignia; portraits and personal artifacts of members of the Anderson family; and artifacts related to the history of the house, including the U.S. Navy's occupation of it during World War II. Anderson House has been featured on the A&E television series, America's Castles, as well as C-SPAN.
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