The Woodrow Wilson House in the heart of Embassy Row will open doors to several Washington Embassies and outstanding private residences for the 25th Anniversary Kalorama House and Embassy Tour on Sunday, September 20, 2009 from noon until 5:00 pm. Sponsored by the Friends of Wilson House, the program benefits Woodrow Wilson House a National Trust Historic Site. This long running tour offers an opportunity to visit sites of diplomatic entertaining as well as explore the many cultures represented by the official ambassadors from foreign countries who reside in the Kalorama neighborhood. No where else but in Washington DC and on our famous Embassy Row can you experience a mix of so many cultures and architectural gems. Also open on the day of the tour are some noteworthy private homes and the host site, Woodrow Wilson House, Washington’s only Presidential Museum.

Highlighting this year’s tour is the French Ambassador’s Residence. Designed in 1910 by Jules Henri de Sibour, the Renaissance-inspired beaux-arts mansion is a home well suited for banquets, benefit soirees, diplomatic welcomes and farewells and Bastille Day bashes. This year’s tour will also include the Residence of the Ambassador of the Netherlands, located across the street from Woodrow Wilson House, whose interior showcases Dutch art, including old master paintings, furnishings, tapestries, and antique silver. The Embassy of Portugal, which boasts floors and staircases of Portuguese marble, historic artifacts, classic Portuguese furnishings and native works of art will also be included this year, as will the Residence of the Ambassador of Venezuela, furnished with Latin American decorative arts and paintings, both classicist and abstract. Built in 1939, this house is quite different from the surrounding homes, with an exterior finished with unadorned white stucco in the Art Moderne style. To mark the 90th anniversary year of the first diplomatic mission to the US, during the Wilson Admisitration, by the country of Ethiopia we will welcome tour visitors for the first time to the home of the Ethiopian Ambassador.

Additional private homes will be announced as they are confirmed. At Woodrow Wilson House, visitors will have an opportunity to view the current exhibition, 101 Wonders of Woodrow Wilson House: Hidden Treasures from the Presidential Collection, featuring gifts presented to President and Mrs. Wilson from around the world.

Attendees will receive a tour program with a self-guided map detailing the architecture and history of each stop. The tour will be held rain or shine. Tickets may be purchased for $30.00 per person on the day of the tour.

Tickets may be purchased for $30.00 per person on the day of the tour in front of Wilson House.



Call 202.387.4062 x18 or email Marie Danch for information