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John Thomson Mason House

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1797–1798, unknown. 3425 Prospect St. NW
  • John Thomson Mason House (Library of Congress)
  • (Damie Stillman)

The Mason house, also known as “Quality Hill,” is one of the largest of the late eighteenth-century houses that grace Prospect Street, home to Georgetown's upper class. Its first occupant, John Thomson Mason, came from a prominent family with substantial landholdings in Maryland and Virginia, and this house provided him with an appropriate setting for socializing with the leaders of the young nation.

Like many of its contemporaries in Georgetown, the design of the Mason house was in part determined by the nature of the building materials. The house is fashioned of brick (now painted) laid out in Flemish bond. Decorative detailing includes keystone window lintels, a molded water table, a modillion cornice, and dormer windows. A carved wooden door surround barely adds a third dimension to the planar wall surfaces. During a major restoration of 1942–1944, the arch in the center hall, salvaged from the Francis Scott Key House, was added, as was flooring in the vestibule, reportedly from a historic house on Capitol Hill.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Pamela Scott and Antoinette J. Lee
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Data

What's Nearby

Prospect House
Capitol Traction Company Union Station
Georgetown Market
Georgetown University
Francis Scott Key Bridge

Citation

Pamela Scott and Antoinette J. Lee, "John Thomson Mason House", [Washington, District of Columbia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/DC-01-GT14.

Print Source

Buildings of the District of Columbia, Pamela Scott and Antoinette J. Lee. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993, 408-408.

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