Tudor Place,Georgetown, Washington, D. C. - Travel Photos by Galen R Frysinger, Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Tudor Place

Tudor Place is a mansion in Washington, D.C. that was originally the home of Thomas Peter and his wife, Martha Parke Custis Peter, the step-granddaughter of George Washington, who left her the $8,000 in his will that was used to purchase the property in 1805. The property, comprising one city block on the crest of Georgetown Heights, had an excellent view of the Potomac River.

From George Washington's 1799 will, Martha Parke Custis Peter, Martha Washington's granddaughter and Washington's step-granddaughter, received $8,000 (equivalent to $130,000 in present day terms). Her husband, Thomas Peter, used her $8,000 inheritance to purchase the property that would become Tudor Place in 1805. They contracted with Dr. William Thornton, who also designed the United States Capitol as well as The Octagon House, to design Tudor Place. The decorations included four chair-cushions embroidered by Martha Washington in 1801 and described as "executed upon coarse canvas in a design of shells, done in brown and yellow wools, the highlights being flecked in gold-colored silk" and included a decorative cover for a bed whose trimmings also were embroidered by Martha Washington.

A previous owner of the property had begun improvements by building what are now the house's wings. Thornton then provided the central structure and the joining elements to the wings, combining them with buff-colored stucco over brick. The "temple" porch and supporting columns provide a most striking addition to the front. The gardens and the historic house museum's collections are as rich and interesting as the home itself. A focal point is the collection of over 100 objects that belonged to George and Martha Washington.

front gate

On September 28, 1811, Martha Peter's mother, Eleanor Calvert, age 56, a prominent member of the Calvert family of Maryland, Martha Washington's daughter-in-law, and George Washington's stepdaughter-in-law, died at Tudor Place. Martha Peter noted in a February 15, 1812 letter to a friend, Eliza Susan Quincy (1798–1884), how important it was to Martha that she was able to spend the last fortnight of her mother's life with her mother at Tudor Place to render attentions that could not be paid elsewhere.

In March 1813, after resigning his seat in the United States Congress, U.S. educator and political figure Josiah Quincy III and his wife, Eliza Susan Quincy, visited the Peters at Tudor Place. While there, Mrs. Peter gave Josiah General Washington's silver gorget with the ribbon attached to it. Washington's gorget, prominently featured in Charles Willson Peale's 1772 portrait of Colonel George Washington, was a metal collar designed to protect the throat of the wearer and Mrs. Peter had received the gorget at the division of her grandfather's estate. Quincy subsequently gave the gorget to the Washington Benevolent Society of Boston in Mrs. Peter's name on April 13, 1813.

On December 18, 1815 and on January 12, 1816, former United States Secretary of State Timothy Pickering visited the Peters at Tudor Place.

Prior to his death on March 1, 1844 as a result of the February 28, 1844 explosion the "Peacemaker" gun (then the worlds longest naval gun) on the USS Princeton, Commodore Beverley Kennon I (1793–1844), occupied Tudor Place with his wife Britannia Peter Kennon, daughter of Thomas Peter.

In about 1869, Robert E. Lee, the former commanding general of the Confederate army in the 1861–1865 American Civil War paid his last visit to the District of Columbia at Tudor Place before his death on October 12, 1870. By 1874, Tudor Place was occupied by Thos. Beverley Kennon (1830–1890),[13] a grandson of Thomas Peter, a former U.S. Civil War captain with the Confederate Secret Service, and a post U.S. Civil War solder under the Khedive of Egypt. Beverley Kennon's wife, Brittania Wellington Peter Kennon (28 January 1815 – 27 January 1911), was a descendant of Martha Washington. In 1890, the year that Beverley Kennon died and at a time when Brittania W. Kennon was the oldest living descendant of Mrs. Washington, The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine published an extensive article that detailed the collection of Martha Washington's relics that were maintained inside Tudor Place.