48 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2025 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL The Original Owners The original owner of the four-story house, garden, and outer buildings, U.S. Marshal Tench Ringgold, bought the site and used slave labor to build the original house in 1824-1825. Ringgold hosted Supreme Court members during two of the court’s terms, in the winters of 1832 and 1833. Among the justices residing at the house was Chief Justice of the United States John Marshall, who had earlier (1800-1801) served as Secretary of State under President John Adams. Ringgold was appointed the U.S. Marshal for the District of Columbia by President James Monroe and reappointed by President John Quincy Adams. The house was purchased in 1835 by Governor Samuel Sprigg of Maryland for his daughter Sally Sprigg, who married William Thomas Carroll, then the Clerk of the Supreme Court. During her stewardship, Mrs. Carroll rented her home to the Russian Imperial Minister to Washington Nikolai Shishkin (1875-1878); it served as a background for glittering social and diplomatic receptions. Following Mrs. Carroll’s death, the house was purchased in 1896 by Mary Ellen Fuller, wife of Chief Justice Melville Fuller, who resided in the house for 14 years, entertaining the justices on Saturdays as they discussed future cases. After Justice Fuller’s death in 1910, the house was sold to Alice Copley Thaw, the divorced Countess of Yarmouth, who rented the house to Illinois Senator Medill McCormick and his wife, Ruth Hanna McCormick. This was the period when Republican Senator McCormick fought against the acceptance of the Treaty of Paris and U.S. participation in the League of Nations. After the death of Sen. McCormick in 1925, the house was sold again, this time to Congressman Bacon and his wife, Virginia. In contrast with the isolationist McCormick, Virginia Bacon was a fierce advocate for U.S. leadership and official acceptance of the principle of multilateralism as embodied in the United Nations. Today, the exterior of the home is protected by an easement from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, ensuring its architectural integrity. As DACOR is a historic site and museum, its operation is supported by committed DACOR volunteers, docents, donors to the foundation, and the many foreign affairs groups who meet at the house, including the American Foreign Service Association, the American Academy of Diplomacy, the Women’s Foreign Policy Group, the USAID Alumni Association, the Association of Black American Ambassadors, the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, and others. 2025 Bicentennial Program of Events at the House The theme of the 2025 bicentennial programs at DACOR Bacon House is the formative role that its residents played in promoting public understanding of the importance of diplomacy and development to the nation’s security and prosperity, Richard Osborn, a noted cartoonist who was published in Harper’s, Fortune, Life, and The New Republic, was a good friend of Mrs. Bacon. He frequented many events at her home and often gave her drawings depicting her social life and friendships. COURTESY OF DACOR
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