Old Stone House

The Old Stone House is one of the oldest structures in Washington DC and the last pre-revolutionary colonial building in the city. It was built in 1765 on a street in the Georgetown neighborhood, and today it stands among stores and restaurants. It went up in three phases during the 18th century and is an example of vernacular architecture: a one-story house that grew with later additions and served as both a home and a place of business.

The walls are blue granite and fieldstone, between two and three feet thick, and the oak inside was cut from the forests that once covered Georgetown. Marks from a pit saw can still be seen on the first floor, and the kitchen hearth is big enough to heat the whole house. Behind the building there is a Colonial Revival garden bordered by a white picket fence, with roses, perennials and bulbs.

Christopher and Rachel Layman bought the lot in 1764 and financed a simple one-room house the next year. Christopher died unexpectedly in 1765, and the widow Rachel later sold the property to another widow, Cassandra Chew. Chew was well off and owned several properties around Georgetown. She added a rear kitchen and a second floor, and a property line dispute in the 1790s led to the brick third floor. The house later passed to her daughter, who also ran a shop inside.

For many years locals believed that George Washington and Pierre L'Enfant had met here to plan the capital, and a sign over the door called it Washington's headquarters. The story was not true: their meetings were at a nearby tavern. But the folklore kept the house from being demolished, unlike many colonial homes in the area. Over the years it held shops, from hatmakers to clockmakers, and in 1953 it was a used-car dealership. The federal government then bought it, the National Park Service removed most later additions, and it opened to the public in 1960.