This project documents the homes of literary authors who once lived in the greater Washington, DC region. We wanted to honor the widest range of literary authors possible, including authors of different backgrounds, writing styles, and influences. We include novelists, poets, playwrights, and memoirists. We do not include writers who were solely journalists, and, with few exceptions, authors of genre literature. We have tried hard to include authors from a range of time periods, from the city’s founding in 1800 through the present.
Recent Additions
What’s New?
We got a great review in the Washington City Paper in August 2020, calling our project “an online database of more than 300 writers and their D.C. homes [that] offers a glittering who’s who of Washington literary history.”
Our official relaunch celebration took place on November 29, 2018. After a decade of implementing this project independently, co-editors Kim Roberts and Dan Vera were pleased to celebrate the project’s new permanent home. Sponsored by HumanitiesDC, this updated version of the website features a responsive design easily navigable by desktop or smartphone users. They have promised to continue and preserve our research on writers’ homes in perpetuity.
HumanitiesDC is one of 56 state humanities councils and the capital’s local affiliate for the National Endowment for the Humanities.
With our latest additions, we are now documenting the homes of 405 writers who lived and wrote in the greater Washington, DC region!
Featured Author
Emily Hawthorn
Emily Thorton Charles, who published under the pseudonym Emily Hawthorn, is the author of two books of poems: Hawthorn Blossoms (1876) and Lyrical Poems (1886). She worked as a journalist; her professional positions included managing editor of Washington World and editor of The National Veteran. She was also a professional elocutionist, giving speeches on women’s suffrage. Hawthorn served on the executive committee of the National Woman’s Press Association, and as chair of the Washington Society of American Authors. Her life was marked by loss: both her father and a brother died in the Civil War. She married Daniel B. Charles but was widowed by age 24 in 1874, and raised their two young sons on her own.
Just some of our many homes...
Adam Francis Plummer
4811 Riverdale Rd.
Eleanor Roosevelt
2131 R Street NW, washington, DC
Eleanor Roosevelt
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Elmer Davis
923 16th St. NW, Washington DC
John Henry Paynter
322 A St. NE, Washington DC
Donald Britton
1630 Corcoran Street NW
Florence Bailey
1834 Kalorama Rd NW, Washington, DC, USA
Henry Adams
2017 I Street NW
Marita Bonner
1805 2nd St. NW, Washington DC
Marita Bonner
2201 2nd St. NW, Washington DC
LaSalle Corbell Pickett
2853 Ontario Rd. NW
Emma V. Brown
3044 P St. NW, Washington DC
Mai-Mai Sze
2001 19th St NW
Francis Scott Key
619 D St. SE, Washington DC
Harry Sylvester
3273 Worthington St. NW
Henrietta McCormick Hill
2400 16th St. NW
Henrietta McCormick Hill
1584 21st St. NW
Henrietta McCormick Hill
2311 Connecticut Ave. NW
Henrietta McCormick Hill
2540 Massachusetts Ave NW
Christopher Hitchens
2022 Columbia Rd. NW
Ellen Blackmar Maxwell
1716 N St. NW, Washington DC
Helen Churchill Candee
1621 New Hampshire Ave. NW
William Waring Cuney
503 Florida Ave. NW
Robert E. Sherwood
1401 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Helen Herron Taft
2215 Wyoming Ave. NW
Helen Herron Taft
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC, USA
Anne Truitt
3506 35th St. NW
Dolores Kendrick
1250 4th Street Southwest, Southwest Washington, Washington, DC, USA
Latest from Twitter
A Twitter List by TwitterDevAuthor Birthdays
in September
Joseph Story (September 18, 1779)
Emily Edson Briggs (September 14, 1830)
Joaquin Miller (September 8, 1837)
Elliott Coues (September 9, 1842)
John Wesley Cromwell (September 5, 1846)
Julia Magruder (September 14, 1854)
Cyrus Adler (September 13, 1863)
Mary Church Terrell (September 23, 1863)
Georgia Douglas Johnson (September 10, 1880)
Pepita Crounse (September 27, 1882)
Elinor Wylie (September 7, 1885)
Alain Locke (September 13, 1885)
Katherine Garrison Chapin (September 4, 1890)
E. Franklin Frazier (September 24, 1894)
Margaret Landon (September 7, 1903)
Elliott Roosevelt (September 23, 1910)
Catherine Marshall (September 27, 1914)
Roald Dahl (September 13, 1916)
Reed Whittemore (September 11, 1919)
Joseph Kraft (September 4, 1924)
Israel Lewis (September 17, 1924)
Dolores Kendrick (September 7, 1927)
Judy Neri (September 18, 1939)
Judith Neri (September 18, 1939)
Kathi Wolfe (September 23, 1952)
Brendan Ogg (September 26, 1989)