Woodley Mansion

The land on which the house now stands was once owned by Colonel Ninian Beall, a Scottish immigrant whose 795-acre tract stretched from the Potomac River to the future site of the Woodley Mansion.

[2] Some of the land, including the future site of the mansion, was purchased in the early 1790s by Benjamin Stoddert and Uriah Forrest, at the request of George Washington, to prevent it from being bought up by speculators who would then have sold it to the government for huge prices.

"[2] In 1938, Henry Stimson gave Woodley to his alma mater Phillips Academy, Andover, though he and his wife continued to live there.

In April 1862, Thomas freed the last of the Woodley slaves: Lucy Berry and her two small sons, George and Lorenzo.

[2] Lucy Berry, the last of the Woodley slaves, was born in Charles County, Maryland, in 1822 on a tobacco plantation called Equality.

Four years later, she was reunited with her husband Denis and her four older children, and the entire Berry family were living together in their own house in East Georgetown.

To keep negotiations on track, the Czar paid Walker a $20,000 bribe, some of which funded the 1867 renovation of Woodley, which included the addition of a third floor.

At the local level, he developed the suburb of Chevy Chase, boosting his land's value by extending Connecticut Avenue, building a streetcar line, and helping to create Rock Creek Park.

When he and his wife Caroline rented Woodley (1915–1919), he was Assistant Secretary of State and also the host of numerous dinners attended by the Roosevelts.

Among the guests who visited Woodley during those years were General John Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary force in World War I.

[3][8] Later reports said that Stimson attempted to give Woodley to the federal government to serve as the official residence of the Secretary of State.

Stimson also reportedly offered to Andrew Mellon as the site for the National Gallery of Art if its Constitution Avenue location could not be secured.

[8] Ultimately, in May 1938, Stimson gave Woodley to his alma mater, the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts (for whom he was president of the board of trustees).

On the evening of September 1, Whittaker Chambers arrived at Woodley to tell Berle that Alger Hiss, a highly respected member of the State Department, was passing top-secret documents to the Soviets.

[3] Local residents objected strongly to the estate being used as a school, protesting both its change of character, and potential noise and traffic issues.

[12] The Woodley Society, founded at Maret in 1993, is an association of students, faculty, and alumni that studies the house's history.