DACOR Bacon House History: Academic Library




Most Recent Articles



Mary Coolbaugh Fuller, Thwarted Concert Pianist

Nov 24 2025
Mary Ellen Coolbaugh Fuller, known as Mamie by the family, was born on March 17, 1867, the eldest child of Melville Fuller, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and Mary Ellen (“Mollie”) Fuller. She seems to have been conceived on the Fullers’ honeymoon in Europe and was the first of seven daughters and two sons that Mollie gave birth to. She is said to have been her father’s favorite child. Brilliant, headstrong, chronically ill and a thwarted concert pianist, she provided both great joy, pride, and perplexing grief for her prominent and ever-wary parents.

Mamie visited her parents often at 1801 F Street after they moved into the house in 1896. She was present at the wedding of her younger sister Fanny in 1906 which took place in the house. But her home was in Chicago where she had grown up and where she had many friends.


Carrie Carroll and Her Three Husbands

Nov 10 2025
Caroline Ann Carroll was the third daughter of Sally and William T. Carroll. She was born in the Carrolls’ house on F Street on September 3, 1841. Violetta, the eldest daughter, was thirteen years older than Carrie; Sally, the next eldest, was four years older, and a third sister, Alida, was born three years later. Photographs of Carrie have not yet surfaced, so we don’t know what she looked like, but later in life she was described as a “handsome woman and a great belle.” Certainly, she had no trouble attracting men – and interesting men at that. In fact, she had three husbands, two of whom she divorced, unusual among Victorian women of her age and social standing. In this post we examine her life and marital career.


Sallie Sprigg Carroll: DACOR Bacon House First Grande Dame: Chapter 5: Gilded Age Washington – Life in and Out of the House on F Street – Final Years

Nov 3 2025
By 1875, Sallie Carroll’s family had mostly moved out of the house, and she decided it would be financially advantageous to rent out the entire house and move to smaller rented quarters nearby. In the fall of 1875, she rented it to Nikolai Shishkin, the new Russian Imperial Minister to Washington, and he and his family moved into the house on F Street for three years. When they vacated and Sallie resumed life in her old home, she often had visitors and gave grand soirees. But in the 1880s, she started renting rooms in the house, and from time to time the whole house for the season. Many glittering parties were given by its occupants in gilded age Washington. During the final decade of her life, Sallie cut back her entertaining and rarely went out. She died in 1895 and was mourned by kith and kin. As her daughter Alide wrote her husband, “The house is like a body without a soul.” She was buried in a vault in the Carroll mausoleum in Oak Hill Cemetery next to her husband who had died thirty-two years earlier.

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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.