Belmont–Paul Women's Equality National Monument

On June 20, 1632, Charles I, King of England, made a land grant in North America to Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore which became the Province of Maryland (later the state of Maryland).[3] Lord Baltimore established counties within the province, and provincial courts further subdivided counties into areas known as hundreds. One of these was New Scotland Hundred. Its southern boundary was the Potomac River, extending from the mouth of Oxon Creek upstream to Little Falls Rapids (a point 10 miles (16 km) downstream from the Great Falls of the Potomac River). On February 12, 1663, the third Lord Baltimore granted a land patent of 1,000 acres (4.0 km²) in New Scotland Hundred to George Thompson. The property (which was now called Duddington Manor) changed hands, was subdivided, and inherited a number of times before it came into the possession of nine-year-old Daniel Carroll in 1773.[4]

On July 9, 1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington. About December 1790, Washington chose the site now known as the District of Columbia. Congress ratified his decision in 1791.[5] Congress subsequently purchased all land in the new district from its private owners (the "original patentees"), including Carroll. The district was divided into squares, and each square into lots. Daniel Carroll purchased lot 1 in square 725 on October 18, 1793, for $266.66, (~$5,835 in 2022) and the same day the federal government gave lot 32 in square 725 back to Carroll gratis. Robert Sewall purchased lot 2 in square 725 for $429.33 on October 18, and lots 1 and 32 from Carroll for $600.29 on January 29, 1799.[6][7]

The construction of the main house occurred in 1799 and 1800.[8][9] The architect of the new Sewall house is unknown, but research by the Historic American Buildings Survey indicates it was probably Leonard Harbaugh, an architect from Baltimore, Maryland, who was just beginning a notable career. (His design for the United States Capitol was the first chosen and later rejected by Congress, and he later designed Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown; Old North, the first building on the campus of Georgetown University; the original Treasury Building; and the War Office Building, which was later replaced by the Executive Office Building).[10] The main house was essentially an addition to the front of a one-room farmhouse[8] believed to date from 1750.[7][11] Although the Sewall family rarely occupied the home, its size, beauty, and location led many prominent government leaders to reside there. These included Albert Gallatin, who served as Secretary of the Treasury under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison,[8] and Reverdy Johnson, U.S. Senator from Maryland, United States Attorney General, and U.S. Minister to the United Kingdom.[9]

Tradition maintains that British troops set fire to the house during the War of 1812, and that gunfire from within or behind the Sewall residence provoked the attack.[12][13]

The house has undergone several architectural changes and restorations.[14] After the house was partially burned by the British in 1814, Sewall sought reimbursement from the federal government for the damages. Congress declined to award them,[15] so Sewall himself paid to have the structure repaired in 1820. A stable was probably added to the property at this time.[9] Sewall died in the house on December 16, 1820, leaving the building to his wife, Polly, and his four surviving daughters.[16] It is unclear which of these continued to live in the house, but Susan definitely lived in it until her death in 1837. Her will left the house to her older brother, Robert Darnell Sewall. Robert Sewall died on March 18, 1853, and bequeathed the house to his nieces, Susan and Ellen Daingerfield (his sister Susan's daughters).[17] In 1879, the Daingerfields made a major alteration to the house by added a half mansard roof to the front.[9] In 1865, Susan Daingerfield married John S. Barbour, Jr., a railroad executive who later became a U.S. Senator from Virginia. After Susan's death in 1886, Barbour continued to live in the Sewall house with his sister-in-law, Ellen.[18]

Sewall House was empty from Ellen Daingerfield's death in 1912 until 1922,[18] when it was purchased by Senator Porter H. Dale of Vermont.[19] Dale extensively rehabilitated the house from 1922 to 1924. He renovated the porch at the rear of the house and enclosed it, added three bathrooms, laid new floors throughout the structure, added three windows on the first floor on the west side of the house, and renovated the kitchen.[9] Architect J.G. Herbert of Washington, D.C., oversaw these changes.[20]

Alva Vanderbilt Belmont

On May 8, 1921, the National Woman's Party (NWP) announced it had purchased the Old Brick Capitol, a historic red brick structure built in 1815 by Congress as a temporary site for the national legislature until the United States Capitol (burned during the War of 1812) could be rebuilt. The organization planned to offer a library, reading rooms, sleeping quarters, meeting rooms, and a dining facility at their new headquarters, which replaced temporary facilities on Lafayette Square.[21] The organization obtained the structure for $150,000, and spent another $50,000 repairing and upgrading it.[22][23] The headquarters were dedicated on May 21, 1922.[24]

However, in 1902, the U.S. Senate Park Commission issued its recommendations for the development of the national capital. This report, The Report of the Senate Park Commission. The Improvement of the Park System of the District of Columbia (better known as the McMillan Plan after the commission's chairman, Senator James McMillan) had recommended clearing nearly all the area around the U.S. Capitol building and erecting a cluster of government office buildings here. This included a new United States Supreme Court Building.[25] In 1926, Congress enacted the Public Buildings Act, which provided for land purchase and construction of the Federal Triangle complex of government office buildings between the National Mall and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Half the funding in the act, however, provided for construction of a new Supreme Court building across 1st Street NE from the U.S. Capitol.[26]

The site for the new court structure was the site of the Old Capitol Building. Eminent domain proceedings began swiftly. In 1927, fearing the NWP might lose its headquarters, Alva Vanderbilt Belmont, the NWP's wealthy benefactor and co-founder, paid Senator Dale $100,000 (~$1.27 million in 2021) in cash for an option to purchase the Sewall house.[20][27][28][lower-alpha 1] The condemnation proceedings went against the party. Although they were initially offered only $100,000 for their property, the NWP protested.[30] In November 1928 the National Woman's Party accepted an award of $299,200 (~$3.76 million in 2021) for their existing headquarters in the Old Capitol Prison.[22][30][31]

Belmont exercised her option, and obtained title to the Sewall house on May 21, 1929.[20] The party announced their purchase of the structure in early September 1929.[32]

The structure was renamed the Alva Belmont House during the NWP's national convention, which opened on December 6, 1929.[33] Renovations to the structure began in August 1929. It is unclear if Columbus, Ohio, architect Florence Kenyon Hayden Rector or local D.C. decorator Madeleine McCandless designed and implemented the changes, but the Historic American Buildings Survey concludes that McCandless probably oversaw the improvements. These included a new window and door in the first floor on the east side, double doors in the west side, a new window on the second floor on the east side, a new bathroom on the second floor, and a new window on the second floor on the west side.[20] These renovations cost about $30,000. Additionally, the NWP purchased two additions to the site at a total cost of about $19,000 to $20,000.[27] When the Old Capitol was demolished, women from the NWP showed up with wheelbarrows to rescue bricks from the structure, which they then used to pave the patio in the Belmont House garden.[34] A bronze plaque was affixed to the exterior of the house after the renovations were complete in December 1930, marking the official dedication of Alva Belmont House.[35] The renovations converted the private residence to a multipurpose living and working space where NWP's leader and main strategist, Alice Paul, and others lived and worked.

Alva Belmont Plaque

In 1955, the U.S. Senate considered legislation that would permit the condemnation of Belmont House so that underground security vaults could be constructed there as part of the construction of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. But the plan met stiff opposition from local residents and the Capitol Hill Restoration Society.[36] The battle over the legislation continued into 1958.[37]

In 1960, Congress enacted legislation exempting Sewall–Belmont House from property taxation.[38][39]

In 1965, by Senator Stephen M. Young introduced legislation in Congress to purchase the Sewall–Belmont House and turn it into a residence for the Vice President of the United States. Hearings were held on the bill in 1966, which provided $450,000 for purchase of the structure and property and $200,000 for renovations and additions. But opponents argued that the house was not large enough and not remote enough from the Capitol to provide privacy, and the bill died.[40]

Sewall–Belmont House, with the Hart Senate Office Building behind it.

In 1966, the Senate began deliberations which led to construction of the Hart Senate Office Building. The Dirksen Senate Office Building occupied the western half of the block bounded by 1st Street NE, Constitution Avenue NE, 2nd Street NE, and C Street NE. The Architect of the Capitol and Senators sought to condemn the entire eastern half of the block. The Belmont–Paul House sat on the southeast corner of this area. The stand-alone legislation authorizing condemnation of the buildings on the site exempted the Belmont–Paul (then Sewall–Belmont) House from demolition, but not the two adjacent buildings which it used as apartments for its members when visiting Washington over many decades to organize and lobby on behalf of all aspects of Women's Equality.[41][42] Architects wanted this land for an entrance to a planned underground parking garage.[43] This legislation cleared the Senate Committee on Public Works in October 1967.[41] The full Senate approved the bill on April 30, 1968.[44]

The House Committee on Public Works approved the bill on May 22, 1968.[45] The full House of Representatives balked at passing the bill. Architectural historian L. Morris Leisenring had studied the Belmont–Paul House for the Architect of the Capitol, and concluded that the two adjacent structures had once been slave quarters and a tobacco barn, and warranted preservation. Leisenring had recently overseen the restoration of Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial, and his opinion persuaded many House members that the entire NWP complex should be saved.[42] But other historians disputed Leisenring's conclusions.[39] Opponents of the bill were also angered by the cost of the Senate building and actions taken by the Senate previously that year. The House refused to act on the bill, and it died when the 90th Congress ended on January 3, 1969.[46]

Changes to the architectural design of the building moved the parking garage entrance to the northern side of the proposed structure, which left the government seeking to condemn the NWP's two outbuildings for use as greenspace. To overcome House resistance to its authorization legislation, the Senate attached language authorizing the land condemnation to a bill which had already passed the House. During conference committee meetings, House members were unable to have the offending amendment removed from the bill. It passed the House and Senate, and became law.[47]

In 1974, Congress voted to provide the National Woman's Party with $300,000 (~$1.3 million in 2021) in historic preservation funds to help renovate and maintain the house. The legislation also authorized the National Park Service to conduct tours of the site.[48] But major budget cuts enacted the following year jeopardized these funds,[49] and the Historic American Buildings Survey has concluded that they never occurred.[50]

In 1984, Congress enacted legislation which once more gave the NWP historic preservation funding for the house.[51]

The Sewall–Belmont House continued to be used as the headquarters for the National Woman's Party into the 21st century.[52] Over time, the house also became a museum that housed an archive, memorabilia, documents, furniture, and artwork related to the women's suffrage and equal rights movement.[19] Maintaining the structure proved increasingly costly,[53] so the organization began renting the Sewall–Belmont House as a meeting center and wedding site. At their peak in 2007, weddings brought in more than $100,000 (~$127,774 in 2021) for the museum. The discovery of mold in the Florence Bayard Hilles Research Library in 2014 forced the museum to spend $75,000 (~$85,651 in 2021) to remove it. To pay for the repair, the museum placed two of its three staff people on half-time. In January and February 2016, heavy snowfall damaged copper gutters at the house, forcing the museum to cancel most of its Women's History Month programming to pay for repairs.[54]

Starting in January 2022, the National Monument was closed down to the public to begin a 12-18 month renovation. Funded through the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA), the restoration includes installation of new HVAC equipment throughout the house, rehabilitation of all historic windows, installation of a new metal roof, an extension of fire sprinkler protection to the Library, plaster wall/ceiling & crack repairs, lead paint abatement, structural flooring repairs, and increased storm water drainage capacity in the backyard.[55]