Lothrop Mansion

The Lothrop Mansion is one of the most architecturally striking early 20th century mansions in Washington D.C. Erected in 1909, it is named after its builder and prominent businessman Alvin Mason Lothrop (1847-1912), who cofounded a successful department store called Woodward & Lothrop. From the 1970s to 2017, the mansion operated as the Russian Trade Mission. In terms of design, the mansion is an excellent example of Beaux-Arts architecture. It features decorative elements including quoins, an elaborate cornice, and on the south, main facade a projecting octagonal bay, decorative ironwork, a pair of urns, and a large dormer. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, the mansion's current status is unclear.

The Lothrop Mansion is the second residence to stand on this site. The first was the home of Civil War veteran Dr. William Tindall, who served in the Union army. After the war, he moved to Washington D.C. and enrolled in Georgetown University to study medicine. Tindall worked in Washington D.C. for 63 years for the city government and served as the secretary to the District commissioners.

Lothrop demolished Tindall's home in 1907 to clear the site for the mansion. Lothrop was born in 1849 in South Action, Massachusetts and moved to Boston when he was 18. He got a job in a dry goods company called the Shepard Brothers. By 1870 he was working at a store called Cushing & Ames and it was there he met his future business partner Samuel Walter Woodward. In 1879 they decided to establish their own dry goods business, which they called Boston Dry Goods House, in Washington D.C. Over the next several years the business grew and the company evolved into a modern department store by 1887. The name was also changed to Woodward & Lothrop. Lothrop married his wife, Mary, in 1885 and they had two daughters together, Caroline and Harriet.

Sadly, Caroline died in 1908 and Mary in 1909. Only Lothrop and Harriet moved into the house when it was finished toward the end of 1909. Mary's death took a toll on Lothrop's health and he suffered from bright's disease. As a result he did not spend much time at the mansion. Instead, he mostly lived in South Acton or at his summer home in the Adirondack Mountains. However, on Thanksgiving Day in 1912, he unexpectedly suffered a stroke and died at the mansion where the family, including Harriet's new husband Nathaniel Luttrell, had gathered. He was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery. Luttrell became the director of Woodward and Lothrop around this time.

The mansion remained a private home until 1943 when Harriet and Nathaniel's children, Nancy and Nathaniel Jr. (he became the director of the company after his father died in 1942), decided to rent it out. It was first leased to the Soviet Union which used it as its Office of the Attache. The Canadian Department of Defense Production leased it in 1954. In the 1960s when the mansion housed the Australian Joint Service Staff. An English language school operated in the mansion in the early 1970s until the Soviet Union bought it in 1975 from the Luttrell family. It operated as the Russian Trade Mission until 2017 when tensions between the U.S. and Russia prompted the federal government ordered it to be closed.

“Alvin Mason Lothrop House,” DC Historic Sites. Accessed October 19, 2022. https://historicsites.dcpreservation.org/items/show/344.

Hansen, Stephen A. "Alvin Lothrop Mansion at 2001 Connecticut Avenue, NW." Washington Chronicles. November 14, 2012.

Helmore, Edward. "Russia says U.S. threatened to break into trade mission." The Guardian. September 2, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/02/russia-consulate-washington-san-francisco-fire-break-in.

Hotaling, Emily Eig. "Lothrop Mansion." National Park Service - National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. December 20, 1988. https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/ef0d8241-d383-40ec-8bb8-a7c40af631e5.