2300 Foxhall Road Northwest
Washington, DC, USA

Marly

Completed in 1931, for Delphine Dodge (1899-1943) and her second husband Raymond T. Baker (1877-1935), Director of the U.S. Mint and former husband of Mrs Maggie Vanderbilt. Their 44-room house measures 142-by-59-feet and stood on a 13-acre estate with magnificent views over the Potomac Valley and the distant Blue Ridge Mountains. It was commissioned as a wedding present from Delphine's mother, Mrs Anna Dodge, and was designed by Horace Trumbauer who modelled it on L'Hôtel de Rothelin-Charolais (1704) in Paris. But, just three years later (1934) they were divorced and the following year Delphine married her third husband, Timothy Godde, in England.

From 1938, the house was leased by Delphine's first mother-in-law - and her mother's good friend - the recently widowed Mrs Eva Stotesbury who named it "Marly" after the Château de Marly where King Louis XIV lived while building Versailles. Having just lost her husband, this was Eva's last proper home and she surrounded herself with her favorite pieces from the iconic Whitemarsh Hall. In 1945, Marly was purchased by the Belgian government and has served as their embassy ever since.