The Forrest-Marbury House was built in 1788 by John Stoddert and soon became the city home of Georgetown’s 3rd Mayor and Stoddert’s business partner, General Uriah Forrest. Forrest had lost a leg during the Battle of Brandywine in the Revolution, and would go on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. On March 29th, 1791 General Forrest hosted his old friend and former commander, George Washington, and other prominent local landowners for dinner before their historic meeting at Suter’s Inn which I discussed briefly in my last post in this series on The Old Stone House (read it HERE). In 1794, Forrest moved out of this house and to his country estate across town, which he called Rosedale, where he lived out his days. Rosedale will be featured next in this series (read it HERE).
From 1800-1835 this house was owned and occupied by William Marbury, a successful local banker. On the last day of John Adams’ presidency, Adams nominated Marbury to be a Justice of the Peace in Washington D.C. This nomination was blocked by incoming president Thomas Jefferson and his secretary of state James Madison. Marbury filed a lawsuit asking for a writ of mandamus which would force the Jefferson administration to complete his commission and in 1803 the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case of Marbury v Madison. This case would deny Marbury his commission not on the grounds that he didn’t deserve it, but on the grounds that to do so was outside the constitutional power of the Supreme Court. This famous early case established the principle of judicial review. Marbury’s adversary in the case, James Madison would later live in the Octagon House which will be featured in a later post in this series.
The house remained in the Marbury family until 1884 and then would go through several owners before being rezoned for commercial use. Starting in the 1950s, the building became home to a string of bars and nightclubs. It started as Julie’s in the ‘50s, a pizza and beer joint. In the ‘60s it became Groovy’s, a “cinamatheque” or a nightclub that showed movies. As Smoky’s the building started to evolve into a music club. The house would become Casablanca and then Apple Pie before its final and perhaps most famous iteration as a nightclub - Desperado’s. Desperado’s would occupy 3350 M St. from 1976 until September 18th, 1982 when it closed its doors for good. Desperado’s was the local music counterpart to the more famous Cellar Door across M St. which attracted more nationally known acts.
The house was restored to its original appearance in 1988 in time for the bicentennial celebrations of the constitution and the founding of Washington D.C. Since 1992 the Forrest-Marbury House has been home to the Ukrainian Embassy.
The Forrest-Marbury House is located at 3350 M. St. NW, Washington D.C. 20007. It is not open to the public.
D.C.’s Oldest Homes was intended to be a single post with an overview of the history of some of the beautiful buildings from the city’s first decade and before. The more I looked at the history of each property though, the further down the rabbit hole I went. I hope you enjoy this series of brief posts looking at each property individually. All color photos are available for sale and licensing