Old Stone House

The Old Stone House in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., is considered one of the oldest buildings in the capital and the last surviving colonial house from before American independence. It was built in 1765 by Christopher and Rachel Layman, a married couple who initially used the simple single-family home as their residence. After the founder's death, his widow sold the property to Cassandra Chew, a wealthy woman from the upper middle class, who substantially expanded the building over the following decades. She had a rear kitchen and a second floor added, while a third upper floor was built in the 1790s to correct a boundary encroachment of the original west wall. Over the centuries, the house served as both a residence and a place of business for various craftsmen and merchants, before it was operated for a time in the 20th century as a used-car dealership with a parking lot in the backyard.

The architecture of the house is an example of the local building style of the colonial era. The exterior walls are made of blue granite and fieldstone from a quarry near the Potomac River and are two to three feet thick. Inside, you'll find original oak beams and a large fireplace opening in the kitchen that once could heat the entire house. The second floor, which is decorated with higher-quality materials such as plaster and stucco, contains a dining room, a bedroom, and a living room, with a hidden dumbwaiter making it easier to pass meals up from the kitchen. The plainer third floor, built of brick, probably served as a nursery and storage space. Today, about 85 percent of the building remains in its original condition from the time it was built.

After the federal government acquired the house and the National Park Service renovated it in the 1950s, it opened to the public as a museum in 1960. Later alterations from the 19th and 20th centuries were removed, and the backyard was transformed into an English garden, which is now used for small wedding ceremonies and as a place to relax. You can tour the historically furnished rooms and learn more about the history of the site, which was saved from demolition because of a local legend. The legend falsely claimed that George Washington and the city planner L'Enfant held meetings here, a claim the National Park Service later disproved. Despite this correction, the Old Stone House remains an important historic landmark, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and part of the Georgetown Historic District.