The Embassy Concert Series

Annapolis Brass Quintet
and
Heidi Lehwalder, Harp
​
Embassy of Italy
Washington, D.C.

Recorded for
WETA TV
BROADCAST
To see and hear this performance
​TAP HERE

Embassy of Italy
Sixteenth Street
WASHINGTON, D.C.

The Embassy of Italy is one of the important series of Meridian Hill mansions built for foreign embassies aspart of a grand civic plan to remake 16th Street as ―Presidents Avenue.‖ The scheme was brought to fruition inthe decades after 1900 largely through the efforts of Mary Foote Henderson, who built nearly a dozen embassy buildings near her residence on the street. She succeeded in attracting a few foreign governments to follow suit, and the Embassy of Italy, built in 1924-25 on land the Italian government purchased from Mrs. Henderson, is among the most notable of these. The embassy is a distinguished example of Beaux-Arts design in the Italian Renaissance style, illustrating the effective adaptation of the style for use both as an imposing residence and a statement of national identity. It is one of only two known buildings in Washington designed by Warren and Wetmore, the prominent New York firm perhaps best known as the architects of Grand Central Station. The property also includes a chancery addition from the 1930s. 
~ DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA INVENTORY OF HISTORIC SITES, September 30, 2009