Stewart's Castle
Stewart's Castle, also referred to as Castle Stewart or Stewart's Folly, was a mansion in Washington, D.C., located on the north side of Dupont Circle between Connecticut Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue. The house owed its nickname to the original owner, Senator William Morris Stewart, the imposing, turreted facade and its prominence in an area considered undesirable at the time of its construction. Designed by noted architect Adolf Cluss, the house was completed in 1873 but only stood for 28 years. It was badly damaged in a fire in 1879, but later repaired and rented to the Chinese Legation from 1886 to 1893. The house was sold to Senator William A. Clark, who razed it in 1901 with plans to build a new residence. The plans never came to fruition and the site remained vacant for over 20 years until the construction of a commercial building, which still stands.
Up until the 1860s, much of what is now the Dupont Circle neighborhood was still undeveloped marshland with only a few modest houses. The Board of Public Works (BPW) began large-scale improvements in parts of the city in 1871, and the following year, Connecticut Avenue was paved from Lafayette Square to Boundary Street (present-day Florida Avenue) with trees flanking the roadway. The circle itself, originally named Pacific Circle in honor of the neighborhood's real estate developers, was improved with paths, fences and landscaping. The developers, Nevada Senator William Morris Stewart (1827-1909), Curtis Justin Hillyer and Thomas Sunderland, were wealthy lawyers who had made their fortunes with mining operations in California and Nevada. Their real estate business nicknames included the Pacific Pool, Pacific Syndicate and California Syndicate.
Hillyer and Sunderland encouraged Stewart to build a large house in Pacific Circle to spur further development and increase property values in the neighborhood. Despite financial difficulties that he was experiencing at the time, Stewart began plans for his house and selected noted architect Adolf Cluss (1825-1905) to design it. Cluss, a German immigrant, was the BPW architect at the time who designed many of the city's prominent buildings including the Arts and Industries Building, Center Market and the Franklin School. Construction lasted from 1871-1873 at an estimated cost of between $80,000-$100,000. The design of the nearly 19,000 sq ft (1,800 m2) house was influenced by the pentagonally shaped, 16,322 sq ft (1,516.4 m2) lot on the north side of the circle between Connecticut Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue. All of the house's furnishings were purchased in 1872 by Stewart's wife, Annie, daughter of Senator Henry S. Foote, during a visit to France. The first consignment of furnishings were lost at sea and an almost identical order was placed, which arrived safely to the city.
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