DECATUR HOUSE
The Decatur House, located at the corner of H Street and Jackson Place NW., was designed by Benjamin Latrobe and built about 1819 by Commodore Stephen Decatur, it is said, from Barbary pirates’ prize money.
DECATUR HOUSE
Scarcely had the house been completed and through the trophies of the naval hero made a place of great interest when, on March 22, 1820, Decatur was mortally wounded in a duel with Commodore James Barron which took place at Bladensburg, Md. Decatur died in his home that night and was buried at Kalorama, a prominent estate in those days in northwest Washington.
Thereupon Henry Clay, who was then a Member of the House of Representatives and subsequently Secretary of State in the Cabinet of John Quincy Adams, occupied the Decatur House. After the Civil War the house was bought by Gen. Edward H. Beale, a friend of General Grant. It was inherited by Truxton Beale, who resided there many years.
OTHER HISTORICAL HOUSES
Other houses adjacent to Lafayette Square and the White House grounds which became historically important were:
The Cameron House, adjacent to the Dolly Madison House, was built in 1828 by Benjamin Ogle Tayloe. Later it was altered somewhat to suit the fine taste of Mrs. Cameron, wife of James Donald Cameron, who served as a Senator from the State of Pennsylvania from 1877 to 1897. The Cameron House to-day is occupied by the Cosmos Club, which, as has been stated, also occupies the Dolly Madison House. The beautiful gardens surrounding it are a source of much pleasure.
The Van Ness Mansion formerly stood on the site now occupied by the Pan American Building, near Seventeenth Street and Constitution Avenue.