In 1632, King Charles of England granted a charter for a huge tract of land in what was then the colony of Maryland to Cecilius Calvert, the second Lord of Baltimore. Within that tract was a hill known as Jenkins Hill which today we know by its far more famous name: Capitol Hill. In 1663, lawyer George Thompson acquired 1800 acres from Lord Baltimore and leased the land to future Proprietary Governor of Maryland Thomas Notley for 1000 years at the rental rate of “40,000 pounds of tobacco and one pepper corn” per year. Notley called his plantation Cerne Abbey Manor.
Cerne Abbey Manor would remain in Thomas Notley’s family for several generations and eventually was inherited by his great-great-grandson Daniel Carroll. When Washington D.C. was established, Daniel Carroll ceded Jenkins Hill to the Federal Government, and later received part of that land back which he then leased to Robert Sewall. On that lot was a small one-room farmhouse which had been built perhaps as early as 1750. Sewall built a considerably larger house facing the newly designated B Street (now Constitution Ave), keeping the farmhouse as his kitchen. It is likely that this house was completed around 1800. The architect of the house is unknown, but there is some conjecture that the designer was Leonard Harbaugh, who we remember for his designs of Old North for Georgetown University, the old U.S. Treasury Building and Holy Trinity Church and who is buried in D.C.’s Congressional Cemetery. Sewall had this house built as his “town house” but soon thereafter his uncle died and left him a large tobacco plantation in Southern Maryland called His Lordship’s Kindness. The fact that the manor house on that plantation was designed by Harbaugh lends some further credibility to his designing the Sewall House.
Because Sewall was busy sorting out his newly inherited plantation, the house was leased to Albert Gallatin who served as Secretary of the Treasury under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. A disproven rumor once existed that the Louisiana Purchase was signed in the house while Gallatin was in residence there, but it would certainly have been an important discussion around the dinner table, perhaps with Thomas Jefferson himself in attendance. Gallatin lived in the house from 1801 to 1813 and after he left, Sewall left his son, William, to watch the house, but it is unlikely that William ever lived there.
After the Battle of Bladensburg in the War of 1812, British troops marched towards Washington. It is believed that shots were fired from inside the Sewall House, marking the only American resistance to the invasion of the Capital. Whether shots were fired or not, the British did set fire to the house which lends credibility to the story because as we learned when discussing the Octagon House in this series it was not British policy to burn private residences. Regardless, the house did burn and Sewall rebuilt it in its current form soon after the war making some small changes to the original design. He applied for reimbursement for this work from the U.S. government, but his application was denied. Robert Sewall died in the house in 1820, leaving it to his wife and four daughters.
At some point in the middle of the 19th century, the house was leased to Reverdy Johnson who served as a Senator from Maryland and later as the U.S. Attorney General under Zachary Taylor. Johnson was perhaps most famous as the lawyer who defended Mary Surratt in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and also of John Sanford in the Dred Scott case.
The house stayed in the Sewall family until 1912 when then-owner Ellen Daingerfield passed away with leaving no heir to the estate. The Sewall House sat empty for the next ten years and was known as the “haunted house on Capitol Hill” during this period. In 1922, the house was sold to Senator Porter Dale of Vermont who made many improvements during his time living there.
In 1929, the Dales sold the Sewall House to the National Woman’s Party to be used as their national headquarters. The building was renamed the Ava Belmont House in honor of the group’s long time president and main benefactor. The house once again underwent a major renovation and was converted from a purely private residence to a living and working space for the Party. Women working for the Party were trying to pass the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution. In 1965, legislation was introduced to purchase the house for use as the U.S. Vice President’s House but did not pass. The house was almost knocked down completely to provide an entrance to underground parking for the new Senate Office Building, but thankfully was saved from the wrecking ball and placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The National Woman’s Party would own the house until 2015 when they transferred ownership to the National Park Service.
The Sewall-Belmont-Paul House, now known as the Belmont Paul Women’s Equality National Monument is located at 144 Constitution Ave NE, Washington, DC 20002. It is owned and operated by the National Park Service and is open for tours.
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.