The Schoenborn Palace in the Mala Strana district of Prague is the current home of the United States Embassy to the Czech Republic. The first United States Minister to Czechoslovakia was Richard Crane, a Chicago plumbing millionaire. In 1925, Crane, who acquired the Schoenborn Palace at the end of the First World War, sold the building to the United States Government for $117,000.[1]
Rudolf von Colloredo built the present palace between 1643 and 1656 on the site of any earlier building that had been destroyed during the Thirty Years War. Having lost a leg at the Battle of Lutzen, the count had the flight of steps leading to the first garden terrace built with a special incline to enable him to ride into his palace on horseback.[2] The palace was ultmately inherited by the Schoenborn family, from whom it took its present name. Carl Johann Schoenborn sold the property to Richard Crane who ultimately transferred it to the United States Government.