THURSDAy, MARCH 5 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 B3
On June 8, 1940,
Miss Elysabeth
Cochran Barbour
was presented to
society at
Anderson House,
the grand manse
on Massachusetts
Avenue NW.
“Hey society!”
shouted her
father, New Jersey Sen. W.
Warren Barbour. “Here’s my
daughter!”
Miss Elysabeth crawled from
her box and blinked in the
sunlight. She wore a rose-
patterned white lace frock and a
fitted bodice banded with
Gainsborough blue.
No, of course that’s not the way
it happened. This was a fancy
debutante ball, and things were
rather more proper. Miss
Elysabeth wasn’t being presented
to society as in “civilization,” but
to society as in “the rich people
who run things.” Such balls have
long graced the grand home on
Embassy Row.
These days, you don’t have to
be a moneyed Washingtonian to
visit the house. It’s the
headquarters of the Society of the
Cincinnati — a sort of super DAR
for men — and it’s open to the
public.
Stop by, and you’ll see why
2118 Massachusetts Ave. NW has
been the scene of so many balls,
parties, fetes, receptions,
weddings, fundraisers and the
like.
“This marble mansion is so big
that half a dozen social soirees
could be whirling under its ample
roof at one and the same time
with none in danger of bumping
the other,” wrote Washington
Post society columnist Elizabeth
Ford in a March 1954 story.
Larz and Isabel Anderson —
he a Harvard-educated diplomat,she a real estate heiress — built
the house, moving in in 1905.
“It was truly designed for
entertaining,” said the Society of
the Cincinnati’s Glenn A.
Hennessey. “They did so on a
lavish scale.”
The dining room at Anderson
House can seat approximately
50 guests. The kitchen has a
private loading dock that goes
onto the alley. There are two
pantries, a walk-in silver safe, a
dumbwaiter...
“They truly thought of their
guests’ every need,” said
Hennessey, who is assembling
material for a project
documenting 115 years of
entertaining at Anderson House.
Anderson House often played
host to foreign dignitaries,
starting in 1931 with the King
and Queen of Siam.
After Larz’s death in 1937,
Isabel donated the house to the
Society of the Cincinnati for its
headquarters. The mansioncontinued to be a place for
parties, often thrown by the State
Department. State had Blair
House, but it didn’t get a
dedicated event space until the
Diplomatic Reception Rooms
opened in Foggy Bottom in 1961.
On Sept. 24, 1956, Secretary of
State John Foster Dulles hosted
a party for Crown Prince Savang
Vathana of Laos at Anderson
House. Marjorie Merriweather
Post entertained there, too, even
though she had her own fancy
places.
“ She was one of the sponsors of
a famous 1959 Thanksgiving eve
ball held here,” said Hennessey.
But it wasn’t all about the
1 percent. On June 19, 1940,
Metropolitan Opera tenor
Richard Crooks came to
Anderson House to sing at a
fundraiser for antiaircraft
defense equipment in France. For
several years, the Society of the
Cincinnati loaned the building
for the annual Thrift Shop Boardbenefit. There was no admission
charge, just a request that visitors
bring a bundle of old clothes to be
sold at the board’s thrift shop.
Hennessey said that as early as
the 1950s, the house was used for
weddings, typically by families
with a connection to the Society
of the Cincinnati. Now anyone
can rent it for weddings,
receptions and corporate events.
“The income helps take care of
the house and open it to the
public free,” Hennessey said.
The house can accommodate
pretty big shindigs.
“I was shocked to find some
events had 400, 500 or 600
guests,” Hennessey said. “A few
articles talked about guests lined
up on the street outside, waiting
to go in to the receiving line.”
Hennessey said that
sometimes after large events,
classified “Lost & Found” ads
would appear in District
newspapers seeking the return of
jewelry that had fallen off in the
crush. Another story noted that
cutlery sometimes went missing,
as guests pocketed a fork or
spoon as a souvenir.
If you have photos, invitations
or other ephemera connected
to Anderson House, Hennessey
would love to hear about it.
Send him an email at
[email protected].
“A ny kind of physical aspect
they have would be terrific to be
able to consider including,” he
said.
I think a gown worn to one of
those debutante balls would be
cool. How about some of that
pilfered silverware?
“Wouldn’t that be special?”
Hennessey said.
[email protected]
Twitter: @johnkelly For previous columns, visit
washingtonpost.com/john-kelly.Hunt on for artifacts of lavish times at D.C. mansion
John
Kelly's
WashingtonEllIott o’DonoVan
The porte cochere of Anderson House hints at its splendor. The
Society of the Cincinnati, headquartered at the mansion, is looking
for items r elated to parties held at the house, completed in 1905.risked deportation because of
intensifying efforts to crack down
on illegal immigration by the
Trump administration.
Vasiliades’s attorney, Jeremy
Eldridge, said that the
immigration comments made by
his client added political fuel to
the case but that Vasiliades was
ultimately cautioning the alleged
victim about an actual concern —
he had learned that ICE agents
were going to be at the
courthouse.
Eldridge said Vasiliades was
“vindicated of a lion’s share of the
charges in this case” and
“maintains his innocence with
regard to any acts of witness
intimidation against the alleged
victims in this case.”
Vasiliades faces up to five years
in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Sentencing is set for April 3.
Vasiliades’s own client at the
time of the cash offer was later
acquitted of rape by a city jury,
records show.
— Baltimore SunVIrgInIa38 a nimal fighting
charges are broughtA Manassas man faces 38
felony charges related to alleged
animal fighting, authorities said.
Arwin Garcia Pingol, 35, was
charged Tuesday, Prince William
County police said. It wasn’t clear
whether he had o btained a
lawyer. Acting on a tip, animal
control officers responded Feb. 6
to a home in the 9000 block of
Ellsworth Road, police said.
A search found 63 chickens
and two dogs. They were seized
by investigators.
In a statement, police said that
“many of the chickens were
found in a manner consistent
with their preparation for
fighting.” Police said the chickens
were “being bred, raised and
housed on the property for the
purposes of being shipped.”
Authorities said they don’t
think any fighting was done at
the Manassas property.
The dogs were not involved in
fighting but had “inadequate
care.” T he animals are being held
with authorities as the case goes
through court, officials said.
— Dana HedgpethmarylanD
Plan to pay exonerees
$8.7 million approved
Maryland’s Board of Public
Works, made of the g overnor,
treasurer and comptroller, voted
unanimously Wednesday to pay
$8.7 million to three Baltimore
men who spent 36 years in prison
for a murder they did not
commit.
Alfred Chestnut, Ransom
Watkins and Andrew Stewart
were each 16 years old when they
were arrested in 1983 in the
slaying of 14-year-old DeWitt
Duckett. Duckett was a student at
Harlem Park Junior High School
and had his Georgetown
University jacket stolen during
the incident.
Chestnut, Watkins and Stewart
were each convicted of murder
and sentenced to life without
parole in 1984. But Chestnut
discovered in 2018 that Baltimore
prosecutors had withheld
evidence that pointed to the
person investigators now believe
was the actual killer.
The three were released last
November. Each man will receive
more than $2.9 million by July
2025, or about $81,000 for each
year they were incarcerated.
“A ll of them experienced
unimaginable pain while they
were incarcerated, and there is
no question that they deserve to
be justly compensated as they
work to rebuild their lives,” said
Gov. Larry Hogan (R).
— Tom Jackman
Attorney pleads guilty
in obstruction case
A Baltimore defense attorney
has pleaded guilty to obstruction
of justice for offering an alleged
rape victim cash not to testify, the
Maryland Attorney General’s
Office announced.
The case against C hristos
Vasiliades, 41, took nearly three
years to be resolved, with several
counts of witness intimidation
thrown out by a judge and a jury
deadlocking on the remaining
counts at a trial last year.
Vasiliades and a man acting as
an interpreter were recorded
telling the alleged victim that she
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washingtonpost.com/local/lotterylotterIesBY FENIT NIRAPPILA national advocacy group for
sex workers said Wednesday that
it will drop an effort to place a
measure on the D.C. ballot to de-
criminalize prostitution, after an
uproar from local sex-work activ-
ists.
Decriminalize Sex Work, an or-
ganization formed in 2018, had
hoped to spearhead a voter initia-
tive in the nation’s capital as the
first of several jurisdictions to
take the issue d irectly to voters.
But local groups that have been
working on legislation to elimi-
nate criminal penalties for prosti-
tution told the national organiza-
tion t o stay o ut.
They objected to the organiza-
tion’s predominantly white and
cisgender leadership, arguing
that black, Latina and transgen-
der women bear the brunt of anti-
prostitution laws. They also did
not want to partner with an orga-
nization co-founded by a man ac-
cused of sexual misconduct dur-
ing his time as a marijuana advo-
cate.“We know that this ballot initia-
tive can be won, but we cannot
and do not want to do i t when local
activists are not interested in col-
laborating with our organization,”
Decriminalize Sex Work said in astatement. “Divided in this way,
we all lose. So, we are discontinu-
ing our efforts to decriminalize
sex work in the nation’s c apital.”Other sex-worker activists said
D.C. advocates should be willing
to work with the national organi-
zation because it offered money
the movement has long lacked.
Decriminalize Sex Work said it
would offer $100,000 for a local
D.C. group to spearhead a voter
initiative in 2022, citing internal
polling that showed that a mea-
sure could p ass.
The group h ad also d efended its
political director, Rob Kampia,
from complaints that he should
not be involved in the organiza-
tion b ecause of allegations that he
made lewd comments about
women and had consensual rela-
tionships with female subordi-
nates w hile leading the Marijuana
Policy Project.
Female employees of Decrimi-
nalize Sex Work said Kampia’s
role was limited to fundraising
and that his contacts with liber-
tarian donors were valuable for
the movement.
Ta mika Spellman, a local sex-
work activist, said those argu-
ments were patronizing and that
she was not interested in thegroup’s o ffer of $100,000, which is
not enough for a citywide ballot
measure c ampaign.
“The way that they forced
themselves into D.C. just rings so
true of abusive behavior by white
men with money,” Spellman said.
“Our years of experience of living
this life and boots on the ground
here locally gives us authority to
say we know better than y ou.”
Kampia previously told The
Washington Post h e regretted that
his past misconduct was interfer-
ing with his organization’s mis-
sion. He also said he thought the
measure could pass even with lo-
cal activists opposed, and drew
some criticism after telling The
Post that he prefers sexual en-
counters with sex workers be-
cause “it’s safer for me to do that,
politically.”
The D.C. Council held a 14-hour
hearing on legislation to decrimi-
nalize sex work in the fall. But the
bill stalled without enough sup-
port to hold a committee vote.
Local a ctivists say they w ill c on-
tinue organizing on t he issue.
[email protected]tHe DIstrICtGroup drops ballot e≠ort to decriminalize sex work
“We know that this
ballot initiative can be
won, but we cannot and
do not want to do it
when local activists are
not interested in
collaborating with our
organization.”
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