OUR HISTORY
Today a bed & breakfast, Swann House has played host to notable residents, guests, and partygoers for more than a century. Delve into the story of one of Washington, D.C.'s most exquisite historic homes.
Swann House is one of the oldest freestanding mansions in the Dupont Circle neighborhood. When Washington artist and architect Walter Paris constructed the home in 1883, the cost of the building was approximately $18,000 – an impressive sum in those times. However, Paris never lived here, choosing instead to travel and reside at the Cosmos Club when in Washington. Mr. Paris' paintings hang in the White House and Smithsonian!
The house was sold to Colonel Theodore Tyrer, a lawyer and president of the Washington Real Estate Company, who lived in the house from 1886 until 1901. In 1899, Tyrer hired architect Thomas Franklin Schneider to remove the original wood front porch and replace it with the larger and far more imposing brick and stone porch with Romanesque columns. Schneider's porch still exists today. A student of renowned architect H. H. Richardson, Schneider was responsible for many of the grand Richardson Romanesque buildings in Dupont Circle.
In 1912, the mansion played host to a highlight of that year's social calendar. At that time, prominent widow Lucretia Roberts Cromwell owned the home. In January 1912, she married Edward T. Stotesbury, a Philadelphian whose partnership with JP Morgan made him one of the wealthiest men in America. The wedding took place here, in the bride's home, with both JP Morgan and President Taft in attendance. On her wedding day, Lucretia received a gift of $4 million dollars from her new husband and a pearl necklace reported to cost $500,000 from Mr. and Mrs. Morgan.
__Mrs__Oliver_Cromwell's_residence%2C_scene_.jpg)
The home circa 1912. Credit: Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons
The Stotesburys built grand homes in Palm Beach and Bar Harbor, Maine, and a 150-room villa outside Philadelphia known as Whitemarsh Hall. Mrs. Stotesbury set the social calendar wherever she happened to be in residence. Her children from her first marriage also played prominent roles in society. Her son, James Cromwell, was the first husband of tobacco heiress Doris Duke and for a short time Ambassador to Canada under FDR. Daughter Louise married General Douglas MacArthur on Valentine's Day in 1922.
By 1920, the house had changed hands to David Houston, President Wilson's Agriculture Secretary. He was later appointed Secretary of the Treasury.
Like many of the grand homes in Washington, the home became a boarding house for solders returning from World War II. Eventually it fell into disrepair, which persisted for decades.
In 1986, Mark Montgomery and Wallace Tutt purchased the home and undertook an extensive restoration. Luckily, the house's 10 fireplaces, elaborate cornice moldings, fluted woodwork, and inlaid wood floors were carefully retained. They added the sunroom to the back of the house, as well as the pool and bedroom balconies. Upon completion of the renovation, the home was given the moniker "Swann House" as a tribute to its Swann Street location.
In 1989, Richard and Mary Ross purchased the newly restored Swann House as their home. Mary was personally responsible for selecting the color palette of each room as well as the fabrics and furnishings. They opened their treasured home as a bed and breakfast in 1996.
Boutique hotelier verdigreen acquired the mansion in 2022 and undertook another renovation, brightening the home and adding contemporary finishes. The new design celebrates the authenticity of the space and pays homage to its 19th-century craftsmanship, carefully preserving elaborately carved fireplaces and original plaster moldings while introducing modern conveniences, approachable luxury furnishings, and hand-selected artwork.
Proprietors Christine and Matt Traylor purchased Swann House in February 2025, bringing a new era to this storied home's history of hospitality.