A Cape Town District Six Museum tagged image from photographer – Billy Wilson Photography as published on Flickr.
The Lindens, Kalorama Heights, Washington, D.C., United States
Image by Billy Wilson Photography
"The Lindens, also known as the King Hooper House, is an historic three-story house located in the Kalorama Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It is the oldest house in Washington (although it was not originally built there) and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1969.
The house was built in Danvers, Massachusetts, in 1754 as a grand summer home for Robert "King" Hooper, a leading shipowner and merchant in Marblehead, Massachusetts, who sided with the Tories before the Revolutionary War and lent the house for four months to Thomas Gage, the reviled British governor. Hooper lost the house to creditors. After passing through several other owners, including one who used it as a boardinghouse, the house was purchased in 1860 by Francis Peabody Jr., who restored and added to it.
It was again sold in 1933 to antiques dealers Israel Sack and Leon David, who sold the paneled drawing room to a Kansas City museum. The remainder of the house was sold the next year for about US,000 (equivalent to 3,331 in 2021) to George and Miriam Morris, who were seeking a period house to showcase their collection of early American furniture.
The Morrises had the house dismantled and shipped to Washington, with the pieces numbered, in six railroad boxcars. Under the direction of the key architect at Colonial Williamsburg, it was slowly reassembled from 1935 to 1938 on a concrete foundation, supported by steel beams. Over the next 45 years, some 50,000 visitors passed through the house, greeted by the owners in period costume. In 1983 it was sold to Norman and Diane Bernstein, who modernized and updated the kitchen and plumbing. At that time, some of the furnishings were auctioned for .3 million at Christie’s. In 2007 it was resold for .2 million, and in 2016 the house was listed for sale again.
The house measures 8,250 square feet (766 m2), with 11 fireplaces, and has nearly 12-foot (3.7 m) ceilings, interior columns, stenciled floors, and wallpaper designed in Paris in the early 1800s.
Kalorama is a neighborhood in Northwest Washington, D.C., United States. It includes the Kalorama Triangle Historic District and Sheridan-Kalorama Historic District. It is named after the Kalorama mansion.
Kalorama Triangle is bordered by Connecticut Avenue, Columbia Road, Calvert Street, and Rock Creek Park. Sheridan-Kalorama is adjacent, to the southwest, between Connecticut Avenue, Rock Creek Park, Massachusetts Avenue, and Florida Avenue.
The Sheridan-Kalorama neighborhood includes several diplomatic residences, such as the French ambassador’s residence at 2221 Kalorama Road, and the Residence of the Ambassador of the Netherlands at 2347 S Street, as well as 28 embassies. It includes much of Embassy Row on Massachusetts Avenue. The Taft Bridge, carrying Connecticut Avenue over Rock Creek Park, with its concrete lions, is a notable feature. The Spanish Steps are another neighborhood landmark. Notable historic buildings include William E. Borah Apartment, Windsor Lodge, The Lindens, Lothrop Mansion, Miller House, Codman-Davis House, Wyoming Apartments, and the Charles Evans Hughes House. It also includes the Anthony Holmead Archeological Site.
According to Zillow, the median home value in Kalorama is .5 million, making it one of Washington’s most expensive neighborhoods. It is accessible by the Red Line of the Washington Metro at the Woodley Park and Dupont Circle stations, as well as Metrobus and the DC Circulator.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia, also known as just Washington or simply D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. It is located on the east bank of the Potomac River, which forms its southwestern and southern border with the U.S. state of Virginia, and it shares a land border with the U.S. state of Maryland on its other sides. The city was named for George Washington, a Founding Father and the first president of the United States, and the federal district is named after Columbia, the female personification of the nation. As the seat of the U.S. federal government and several international organizations, the city is an important world political capital. It is one of the most visited cities in the U.S. with over 20 million annual visitors as of 2016.
The U.S. Constitution provides for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress; the district is not a part of any U.S. state (nor is it one itself). The signing of the Residence Act on July 16, 1790, approved the creation of the capital district located along the Potomac River near the country’s East Coast. The City of Washington was founded in 1791, and Congress held its first session there in 1800. In 1801, the territory, formerly part of Maryland and Virginia (including the settlements of Georgetown and Alexandria), officially became recognized as the federal district. In 1846, Congress returned the land originally ceded by Virginia, including the city of Alexandria; in 1871, it created a single municipal government for the remaining portion of the district. There have been efforts to make the city into a state since the 1880s, a movement that has gained momentum in recent years, and a statehood bill passed the House of Representatives in 2021.
The city is divided into quadrants centered on the Capitol, and there are as many as 131 neighborhoods. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 689,545, which makes it the 23rd most populous city in the U.S. as of 2020, the third most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and gives it a population larger than that of two U.S. states: Wyoming and Vermont. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the city’s daytime population to more than one million during the workweek. Washington’s metropolitan area, the country’s sixth largest (including parts of Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia), had a 2020 estimated population of 6.3 million residents; and over 54 million people live within 250 mi (400 km) of the District.
The three branches of the U.S. federal government are centered in the district: Congress (legislative), the president (executive), and the Supreme Court (judicial). Washington is home to many national monuments and museums, primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 177 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of many international organizations, trade unions, non-profits, lobbying groups, and professional associations, including the World Bank Group, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization of American States, AARP, the National Geographic Society, the American Red Cross, and others.
A locally elected mayor and a 13-member council have governed the district since 1973. Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. The District of Columbia does not have representation in Congress, although D.C. residents elect a single at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives who has no vote. District voters choose three presidential electors in accordance with the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961." – info from Wikipedia.
The fall of 2022 I did my 3rd major cycling tour. I began my adventure in Montreal, Canada and finished in Savannah, GA. This tour took me through the oldest parts of Quebec and the 13 original US states. During this adventure I cycled 7,126 km over the course of 2.5 months and took more than 68,000 photos. As with my previous tours, a major focus was to photograph historic architecture.
Now on Instagram.
Click here to submit your Cape Town News – free.
Have you tried: Reach Trust for Solar and Building Management?
Fun Western Cape Fact: Why are the houses in Bo-Kaap district painted in bright colours? The original residents of this area in Cape Town were descendants of slaves brought in from Africa and Asia and were Muslims. As part of their religion they celebrate Ramadan – the Islamic month of fasting. At the end of the holy month it is tradition to dress up in brightly coloured clothes and at the same time many of the residents then paint their houses. The reason for getting so many different colours is that the residents and neighbours discuss together what colours they are painting their houses to avoid colour clashes or two houses painted the same colour next to each other.
Watch a Video:
