Existing comment:
McCormick Apt Bldg
When this apartment building was completed in 1917, it was a popular place for the wealthy since the entire place was divided into just six apartments (each averaging six bedrooms and six fireplaces). Tenants included Perle Mesta (the Ambassador to Luxembourg who inspired the Broadway musical "Call Me Madam"), Robert Woods Bliss (who owned Georgetown's Dumbarton Oaks estate), Andrew Mellon (the millionaire industrialist who leased the top floor from 1921 to 1937).
In the early 1930's, Mellon bought millions of dollars worth of art when the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad began selling off its collection. An art dealer Baron Joseph Duveen of Millbank rented the apartment below Mellon's and filled it with his own collection of art. Mellon ended paying $21 million for the 18 sculptures and 24 paintings. Mellon ended up donating all of this to the nation and this formed the foundation of the National Gallery of Art.
During World War II, the building was turned over to the British who used it as the Washington headquarters for the British Purchasing Commission and the British Commonwealth Scientific Office. Afterward, the American Council of Education took over the building until the Brookings Institute (located next door) bought it. They rented it out until 1977 when it was turned over to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. |