The Old Stone House

I thought it fitting to start the Museum Project with a visit to one of the oldest buildings in the city of Washington.  The Old  Stone House is located at 3051 M. Street NW smack in the middle of Georgetown.  The original parcel of land (the third lot in Georgetown) was purchased in the 1751 for less than the cost of a latte at the Starbuck's across the street (1 pound 10 to be exact). 

The house was completed in 1766 and is the only standing pre-Revolutionary war building in the city.  It has been used for everything from a family home to a used car dealership and was acquired by the National Park Service in the 1950s.   The house has three floors with a great room and kitchen on the street level. 

The second floor has a diningroom and two bedrooms including one with a rocking view of Barney's.  The upstairs has the childrens' room with the only closet in the house...closets were few and far between in the 1700s because closets were counted as rooms by the British and subject to the "closet tax".  With two closets devoted to shoes alone, a closet tax would have been enough to incite me to revolt.

Despite the weather, I enjoyed the outside of the house as much as the inside.  There is an expansive garden in the back that is almost completely hidden from the street.  January is probably not the ideal time to visit, but even on a cold, bleak day, it was charming.  

Favorite facts of the day:

•  First floors had low ceilings to trap the heat, warm the stones of the house and, thus, heat the upstairs.  Our forefathers were quite clever.

• I am 8 and 1/2 inches taller than the average colonial woman, but still could have worn heels on a date with George Washington or Thomas Jefferson and had room to spare.   At 5 foot nothing, Martha Washington would have needed a step ladder.