MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE
Sheridan Circle to Scott Circle
21st to 22nd Streets NW

Sanborn, 1904	Today	Cross Section, Florida Ave to 20th St

22nd to 21st St, North Block	22nd to 21st St, South Block

The Townsend House at 2121 Massachusetts Avenue was built in 1904 for Richard Townsend, the President of Erie and Pittsburgh Railroad. The residence’s unique feature is its design around an 1870s Victorian structure that was constructed for promin ent real estate lawyer Curtis Hillyer. The architectural firm of Carrere & Hastings with Frederick Law Olmstead designed the façade and landscaping to resemble the Petit Trianon at Versailles and, despite modifications over the years, the structure retai ns its reputation as one of the architectural glories on the Avenue. The Townsend’s daughter Mathilde acquired the property in 1935 and the Cosmos Club, a private social organization, has occupied it from the 1950s.

Townsend House, 1970

Society of the Cincinnati, 1970

The Society of the Cincinnati/Anderson House, which is a monumental limestone veneer residence built in 1902, is located at 2118 Massachusetts Avenue. I t was designed by the Boston architectural firm of Little and Browne for Mr. And Mrs. Larz And erson, who desired it to be the headquarters of the Society of the Cincinnati, a society founded in 1783 to celebrate and aid descendents of Revolutionary War officers. The house’s use of great arched gates and lavish entrance court, and its monumental d isplay of egg-and-dart stringcourse ornamentation serves to define the

structure as Little and Browne’s masterpiece. During World War II, the Andersons turned the house over to the U.S. Navy; today the house functions as a place for official entertaining by the President, Vice-President, members of the Cab inet, mayor, or ambassadors of foreign embassies, and is open year-round for tourism.