The Building: A Tale of Time and Tradition

This neo-Georgian building, was built at retirement by Alanson Houghton who served as the American Ambassador to the United Kingdom between 1925-1929. The Houghton House, as it was known in the beginning of the 20^th century, was designed by Frederick Brooke, the architect for neighboring British Embassy, and was built with old bricks brought from the 18^th century Cloud Mills in Alexandia, Virginia. In 1934, a woman landscape architect, Rose Greely, designed the Houghton gardens (Blakely, 2014)

In the 1960s, the house served as the home of Ardeshir Zahedi, the Iranian Ambassador to the US, who was married to the daughter of the shah o Iran. Guests such as Elizabeth Taylor, Andy Warhol, Richard M. Nixon attended the glamourous parties hosted by Ambassador Zahedi on the Embassy’s premises (Fandos, 2016).

References:

Fandos, N., (2016),  “$12 Million Iranian Embassy Is Empty, but the U.S. Cuts the Grass”, The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/24/us/politics/iran-embassy-state-department.html

Blakely, J., (2014), The Myths Of The British Embassy II: The Location With Lutyens, https://washingtonembassygardens.wordpress.com/2014/11/19/the-myths-of-the-british-embassy-ii-the-location-with-lutyens/

*Please note that the garden is only open to the public during special events!