Charles Evans Hughes House

This historic home was once the residence of Charles Evans Hughes (1862-1948), who was one of the country's leading political figures during the early 20th century. He served as New York Governor from 1907-1910, as an Associate Supreme Court Justice from 1910-1916, as U.S. Secretary of State from 1921-1925, as Judge of the Permanent Court of International Justice from 1928-1930, and as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1930-1941. Hughes, who was a Republican and often supported liberal policies, also unsuccessfully ran for president in 1916. He lived in the house during his tenure as Chief Justice. It has been the official residence of the ambassador of Myanmar since 1948 and is situated between the Embassy of Kenya and the Embassy of Cyprus. It is a National Historic Landmark and listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Charles Evans Hughes was born on April 11, 1862 in Glens Falls, New York. His father, David, was born in Wales who immigrated to America in 1855 and settled in Glens Falls where he became a preacher and served as pastor to local Baptists. Hughes' mother, Catherine, was born in America. He was their only child. The family moved many times when Hughes was young but the family eventually settled in New York City. His formal education was sporadic but his intelligence enabled him to finish high school when he was just 13. He then attended what is now Colgate University and then Brown University, from which he graduated in 1881. In 1883 he graduated from Columbia University with a law degree and was admitted into the New York bar.

Hughes joined a New York City Law firm and remained until becoming a professor at Cornell University in 1891. Two years later he resumed to the law firm and practiced until 1906. The year before, a legislative committee examining corruption in the state's public utilities appointed Hughes to lead the investigation, during which he discovered significant corruption in the gas and electricity industries. His success in the investigation resulted in him being appointed to lead another successful probe into life insurance corruption in New York City.

Hughes' stature rose in the state and the country as a result of these investigations. The Republican party, at the urging of President Theodore Roosevelt, nominated him for governor in 1906. He won and was reelected in 1908. As governor, he implemented a number of progressive policies including regulating public service agencies, implementing administrative reforms, and passing labor and welfare legislation, including the country's first worker's compensation bill.

President Taft appointed Hughes to the Supreme Court in 1910 after Associate Justice David J. Brewer died. As an Associate Justice, Hughes usually voted in favor of progressive policies including state laws that set minimum wages and imposed maximum work hours for women and children. He also supported the federal government's authority to regulate railroads. Hughes championed civil rights as well.

As noted above, in 1916 Hughes ran for president as the Republican nominee and resigned from the Supreme Court (he was the first and only sitting Supreme Court Justice to run for president). He nearly won, losing just by a few thousand votes. He returned to private practice in New York City but remained in the public eye by publicly supporting U.S. entry into World War I. After the war, Hughes supported President Wilson's idea for a League of Nations but the Senate refused to ratify entry into it. In 1921, President Harding (Wilson lost his reelection bid in 1920) appointed Hughes as Secretary of State. Since the U.S. never ratified the Treaty of Versaille, which officially ended the World War I, Hughes negotiated a U.S. peace treaty with Germany. He also led the Washington Naval Disarmament Conference, which resulted in an agreement to reduce the tonnage of warships.

In 1925, Hughes once again returned to private practice. Three years later he was appointed as Judge of the Permanent Court of International Justice, which was the international court of the League of Nations, and remained in that position until 1930. President Hoover nominated him as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court that year and the Senate approved with 52-26 vote. Under his leadership, the Court initially blocked a number of "New Deal" federal programs and policies implemented by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Eventually, however, the Court shifted in support of the New Deal beginning with voting in favor of minimum wage legislation in the 1937 West Coast Hotel Company vs. Parrish case. Hughes also supported free speech and religious freedoms. In 1937, Hughes successfully prevented Roosevelt from packing the court with as many as six more liberal justices by arguing that the current size of the Court was efficient and voting in favor of (and writing the majority opinion for) a minimum wage law in the National Labor Relations Board vs. Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation case.

In 1941, Hughes retired from the Court and largely remained out of the spotlight. He lived in New York City until his wife died in 1945. He passed away three years later in Massachusetts.

"Biographies of the Secretaries of State: Charles Evans Hughes (1862–1948)." Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State.

Bomboy, Scott. "The remarkable career of Charles Evans Hughes." National Constitution Center. April 11, 2022. https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-man-most-qualified-to-be-president-who-wasnt.

Friedman, Richard D. "Charles Evans Hughes." In Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law, edited by R. K. Newman, 278-9. New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, 2009. https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1062&context=book_chapters.

Gamble, Robert S. & Redburn, Chris. "Charles Evans Hughes House." National Park Service - National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. November 28, 1972. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/72001424_text.

Vile, John R. "Charles Hughes." The First Amendment Encyclopedia. 2009. https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1338/charles-hughes.