DACOR Bacon House History: Academic Library




Most Recent Articles



Management of the House at F n 18 w or 174 F Street N in the 19th Century

Mar 24 2025
At the recent Bicentennial program at DACOR Bacon House, I gave a presentation on the “Management of the House at F n 18 w” as the address of 1801 F Street was first known. It discussed the staffing of the house during the first seventy-five years, as it transitioned from enslaved to free labor. By the end of the Carroll era in 1895, the much-reduced staff was predominantly Irish. This posting includes the text of the talk, along with the charts that were part of the power point presentation.


The Death of Sally Carroll, February 11, 1895

Mar 17 2025
Three weeks have passed since the 130th anniversary of Sally Carroll’s death in the bedroom she shared for thirty-four years with her husband William Thomas Carroll on February 11, 1895. She had been in poor health for at least five years, so her passing was not unexpected. She was surrounded by her three living daughters, a favorite granddaughter, and two faithful servants. The scene was described in detail by her youngest and devoted daughter, Alida Carroll Brown, who had come down in time to be with her mother before she died. She wrote about the last day of her mother’s life in a long letter to her husband in Portland, Maine. In it, she quoted from her niece Katie Carroll Beale, “the house feels like a body without a soul.”



A Suffragist in Washington, March 1913

Mar 10 2025
Last week 112 years ago, women active in gaining the right to vote, descended upon Washington in their thousands for the “Woman Suffrage Procession” that would be staged on Pennsylvania Avenue. It was the eve of President Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration. Some states had already given women the right to vote, but it had yet become the law of the land. Alice Copley Thaw, the Pittsburgh heiress who lived at 1801 F Street, invited her old friend the Hon. Mrs. Basil Hanbury from England, to stay with her as she addressed select audiences in the city on the suffrage issue.

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Our Authors


Terence Walz is the resident historian at DACOR Bacon House. He is a historian of modern Egyptian history with a doctorate from Boston University. He is the author and editor of two published books and has recently contributed articles to the Journal of Supreme Court History and the website of the White House Historical Association. Dr. Walz’s work in international organizations led him to the DACOR Bacon House where he has been a member for six years. He has taken on the task of researching and documenting the history of the DACOR home, its history, and its inhabitants, particularly the first one hundred years. This archive is a growing collection of his work.



Elizabeth Warner, a lawyer by training and DACOR member, is researching the life of Virginia Murray Bacon, the last private owner of the DACOR Bacon House from 1925 to 1980. She is an adjunct professor at New England College, where she designs and teaches courses in law and political science. A long-term resident of the Washington, D.C. area, she also lived and worked throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia for 14 years, often in extremely challenging environments. In addition to articles about Mrs. Bacon, she has published material on human rights, international law and other subjects. Ms. Warner has law degrees from the University of Michigan and Georgetown University.