Mary Foote Henderson

Henderson pursued many interests in St. Louis. Like her mother before her, she believed in woman's suffrage, and became president of the Missouri State Suffrage Association. She studied art at Washington University in St. Louis, and co-founded the St. Louis School of Design as well as the St. Louis Women's Exchange with Rebecca Naylor Hazard. Known as an excellent hostess, she wrote a guide to fine entertaining, Practical Cooking and Dinner Giving, in 1877. In 1885, Henderson published a second cookbook, Diet for the Sick, A Treatise on the Values of Foods.[4]

The Hendersons became very wealthy, when John Henderson bought up enormous quantities of supposedly worthless bonds that Missouri counties had issued after the war. Purchased at ten cents on the dollar, the bonds became valuable when the courts ordered counties to pay Henderson their full face value.

Henderson's Castle in Washington, D.C., built in 1888 and razed in 1949.

In 1889, after accumulating a fortune, the Hendersons moved back to Washington D.C., where they built a castle-like mansion on Sixteenth Street called "Boundary Castle" or "Henderson's Castle."[6] The Hendersons bought up dozens of lots outside the northern boundary of the city in the area known as Meridian Hill. Mary Henderson's interest in the immediate neighborhood, which coincided with the City Beautiful Movement of the early 20th century, ultimately led to the construction of the Meridian Hill Malcolm X Park[7] and eviction of the community of working-class African Americans who resided in the area.[8]

Henderson bought blocks of real estate and had elaborate residences constructed that she sold as embassies. The architect, George Oakley Totten Jr., designed nearly a dozen buildings on 15th and 16th Streets in the Meridian Hill area to enhance the area for diplomatic uses. She frequently lobbied Congress for various projects to improve and beautify the Meridian Hill area.[9] She supported two successive plans, by architect Paul J. Pelz in 1898 by Franklin W. Smith in 1900, to construct a colossal presidential mansion on Meridian Hill to replace the White House. In addition to these plans, she also had a home constructed on 16th Street and offered it to the government as use as the Vice President's mansion.[10][11] She also lobbied for the Lincoln Memorial to be built on the site of Meridian Hill Park.

She was the adopted grandmother of Beatrice Van Rensselaer Henderson (1906–1992),[17] who was married to Joseph Wholean (1894–1971)[18][1] in 1926.[19][20]

In 1925, Henderson also donated land to the District of Columbia for the construction of the Mount Pleasant Library at 3160 Sixteenth Street. Henderson's most well known crusade was to change the name of 16th Street to "Avenue of the Presidents," and to line the street with busts of all the Presidents and Vice Presidents of the United States. While she actually succeeded in having legislation passed to change the name of the street in 1913, the Commission of Fine Arts denied her request to construct the busts. One year later, because the name "Avenue of the Presidents" proved to be unpopular, the original 16th Street name was restored.

Following her death at Bar Harbor, Maine in 1931, the Commission of Fine Arts praised her efforts and her vision of Meridian Hill. A report by the Commission stated:[6]

Persistently she labored during four decades, persuading and convincing Senators and Representatives; single-handed and alone she appeared before committees of Congress to urge approval for the work of development. She won.