It is nationally significant for its association with Major Archibald Butt (military aide to both presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft), and painter Francis Davis Millet – both of whom died in the Titanic disaster on April 15, 1912 – and also Alabama politician Oscar Underwood (1862–1929) who lived there 1914–1925.

The Oscar Underwood House stands in Washington's Foggy Bottom neighborhood, at the southwest corner of G and 20th Streets NW.

The mansard roof is pierced by dormers on both the front and side, with round-arch windows framed by pilastered and pedimented gables.

He served in major leadership positions in both houses of Congress, and was several times a serious contender for the Democrat nomination for President of the United States.

It was founded in 1898 by Ellen Spencer Mussey and Emma Gillett, who were both refused admission to several law schools but eventually entered the bar despite that handicap.