Christian Heurich House (and Interiors) - View this location on map The house built in 1892-94 for successful German-American brewer Christian Heurich (1842-1945) is the city s finest and best-preserved example of Richardsonian Romanesque residential architecture. It is among the nation s most authentic period homes, providing a remarkably evocative sense of the Gilded Age lifestyle of an immigrant industrial entrepreneur. Heurich was the founder and leader of an important business at a time when indigenous manufacturing was central to the local economy. His brewery in Foggy Bottom was the largest in Washington before Prohibition, and one of only two breweries revived thereafter; it was also the last to survive, until 1956. At the turn of the century it was likely the largest single brewing plant in the region. Its construction and demand for hundreds of laborers fostered much development in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood. Heurich personally led the firm for seventy years, until his death at the age of 102. The rusticated brownstone and red brick house with its commanding conical-turreted corner bay was designed by architect John Granville Meyers. A 1914 addition and 1923 expansion of the copper-clad conservatory were designed by architect Appleton P. Clark. The original carriage house and grounds also remain. At Heurich s insistence, the house was constructed to be fireproof likely the first such residence in the city and incorporated many technological advancements like pneumatic annunciators, metal speaking tubes, and electric lighting and alarms. The lavish interiors evoke an Old-World pedigree, expressing German culture both in the overall display of fine craftsmanship and most explicitly in the remarkable muraled Alt Deutsche Bierstube (old German beer room) in the basement. Other notable interiors include formal parlors, dining room, music room, library, grand staircase, family quarters, nursery, and servants quarters. The interior decoration and furnishing was managed by the New York interior design firm of Charles H. and Hugo F. Huber, and executed by a variety of German-American craftsmen, including Washington cabinetmaker August Grasse, metalworker Amandus Jorss, and painter Detlef Sammann. The house remained in the family until 1956, when it was bequeathed to the Columbia Historical Society (later the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.), which occupied the house until 2002. The family repurchased the house in 2003. 1307 New Hampshire Avenue, NW, Washington , DC Historical

---