Arbor Terrace

In the midst of a real estate boom and widespread land speculation, William Hammond Dorsey purchased numerous Washington and Georgetown properties, including the 20 acre site of Dumbarton Oaks (Dorsey retained the name) in 1800, which he enlarged to 22 acres in 1801. Unlike his other land holdings, Dorsey intended to use Dumbarton Oaks as his residence, and consequently built a two story, five-bay Federal style home. Unfortunately, by 1802 Dorsey was over-leveraged from his land acquisitions and required to sell Dumbarton Oaks in 1805 to Robert Beverley for $15,000. Beverly changed the site’s name to Acrolophos and added the Orangery, which is similar to an Orangery at Wye House, Talbot County, Maryland (then the home of Beverly’s brother-in-law). Through Beverley’s tenure and a depression in 1819, the house and grounds fell into disrepair and were later sold to Floride Bonneau Calhoun in 1823 for $10,000. Floride Calhoun registered the home in the name of her son, John Edward Calhoun, and regularly hosted her son-in-law and Vice President, John C. Calhoun. Under the family’s ownership the name was changed to Oakly. In 1829 the property was sold again, this time to Brooke Mackall, an inspector of the Georgetown Custom's Office who lived there for 17 years before selling the property in 1846 to Edward Magruder Linthicum, a successful hardware dealer with a store on the northwest corner of present day Wisconsin Avenue and M Street. Linthicum initially dubbed the site “Monterey” after a recent victory in a war with Mexico, but later changed it to “The Oaks.” Linthium upgraded the property to become a "garden estate house" with a mansard roof, wrought-iron porch work, a main entrance, wings, and a north-facing tower with cupola, a semi-curcular carriage drive, and a stone wall along R street. Many of these changes are recorded in the Boschke Map of 1856-1859. The property then transferred in 1884 to grandson Edward Linthicum Dent, who sold portions of the 22 acre property under obligation to debts. Henry Fitch Blount bought The Oaks home and six acres of land in the southeast quarter of the original property as a retirement home for himself and his five children. Blount was a successful businessman while his second wife a charter member of the DAR. By 1894 Blount had purchased two adjoining lots to constitute almost the eastern half of the original Dent property. While the Blounts made few changes to the exterior of the home and property, they furnished the house in a European style and built “The Little Theatre” in their attic, often hosting parties and theatricals. Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii visited in 1892, while Alexander Graham Bell was Henry Blount’s closest friend. Other famed guests include: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Edward Everett Hale, Clara Barton, Susan B. Anthony, Julia Ward Howe, Frederick Douglass, President Taft and John D. Long. Mr. Blount’s widow sold the majority of the property eight years after her husband’s death to Mildred and Robert Bill in 1920.

Click on the photographs above to take a tour of the property prior to Bliss ownership; notice the Italianate style of the home, the simple south lawn and stone gate, the barn and barnyard situated behind the Orangery, and the sloping hill on the north lawn that has been replaced by the North Vista. The images from the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and Archives reveal the vast changes the Blisses made to the property in their relatively brief tenure .