“… on a high, dry, & handsome situation”

“… on a high, dry, and handsome situation”. . , Built in 1799, Dumbarton House stands as an example of Federal period architecture, a popular style in the United States from 1780 to 1820. Americans sought inspiration from classical Greece and Rome, in architecture as well as politics, to suggest legitimacy, inspire, and forge a national identity. In this new, untested republic, ideals of freedom often conflicted with realities of inequality., Joseph Nourse, his wife Maria, and ten people, free, indentured, and enslaved, lived here from 1804-1813. As a career civil servant, Joseph's post as first Register of the Treasury required moving fro Philadelphia to help establish the new nation's capital in D.C. Ultimately, Nourse served through six presidential administrations. This home, situated on the fashionable heights of the thriving port city of Georgetown, served as the centerpiece of an 8-acre urban farm. The family relied on the enslaved labor of Juba, Dinah, and Bacchus, as well as other enslaved, indentured, and free servants to run the farm and household., [Captions:] , This view of Georgetown from 1838 bears many similarities to the present-day view. To the left is Georgetown University and to the right are the pylons for the aqueduct's bridge, which used to carry cargo boats from the C&O Canal across the Potomac to the Alexandria Canal. , The Potomac, Analostan Island and Georgetown College, Caroline Rebecca Nourse (1838), Joseph's handwritten mortgage document dated April 22, 1805 for this land and the buildings on it for $7,472.93, noting that the mortgage was paid in full on May 21, 1808., 1. Minimal information remains about the enslaved people who worked on this site. These artist renderings attempt to imagine their silhouettes., 2. These sketches are the only depiction remaining of Joseph (1754-1841) and his wife Maria (1765-1850), a deeply religious couple who lost five of their six children., 3. This romantic view from what is now Wisconsin Avenue emphasizes the farms of Georgetown rather than the bustling port and warehouses located down on the Potomac. , Prospect of Georgetown from the Tenleytown Road, Rebecca Wistar Morris Nourse (1820), "[The House sits] on a high, dry, and handsome situation" Description of Dumbarton House at auction, Washington Federalist, March 26, 1804