The Octagon House

When the British burned the White House, the President moved in here.

The Octagon House stands at 1799 New York Avenue Northwest, in Foggy Bottom. It was built in 1799 for Colonel John Tayloe III, the wealthiest planter in the country, at the urging of a new relation: Tayloe's sister Sarah had married William Augustine Washington, son of George Washington's half-brother Augustine Washington Jr.

In September 1814, after British forces burned the White House during the War of 1812, Tayloe lent the house to President James Madison and first lady Dolley Madison, and it served as the Executive Mansion for six months. Only seven houses have ever served as the presidential residence, and only three of them still stand: this one, the White House and Blair House.

Tayloe himself came from Mount Airy, the colonial estate his father John Tayloe II built on the north bank of the Rappahannock across from Tappahannock, Virginia, which he later inherited. By his time it was the centrepiece of the Mount Airy department, roughly 60,000 acres of interdependent plantation farms about a hundred miles south of Washington in Richmond County. He was educated at Eton and at Christ's College, Cambridge, served in the Virginia state legislature and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1800.

It is the oldest private residence in Washington DC, and it is now the headquarters of the Architects Foundation, which runs it as a museum and exhibit space. The programming is pointed rather than decorative: exhibitions, events and education on the cultural and societal impact of architects and architecture, dialogues on historic preservation, scholarships for architects at every career stage, and Communities by Design, which pairs volunteer architect teams with local communities on problems like equitable housing and climate resilience.

A house that once had to stand in for the White House now argues about what buildings are for.