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

Anna Roosevelt Halsted

Anna Roosevelt Halsted—daughter of Franklin Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt—was a journalist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Arizona Times, and edited the monthly magazine The Woman. She later worked in public relations. During her mother’s frequent absences from the White House during WWII, Anna stood in as official hostess. She is the author of two children’s books: Scamper: The Bunny Who Went to the White House (1934) and Scamper’s Christmas (1934). In addition, she co-authored a biography, with Lorena A. Hickock, The Story of Eleanor Roosevelt (1959).

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Just some of our many homes...

Sinclair Lewis

3028 Q St. NW, Washington, DC

Sinclair Lewis

1639 19th St. NW, Washington DC

Henry Morgenthau III

3050 Military Rd NW, Washington, DC, USA

Shirley Graves Cochrane

127 Seventh Street SE, Washington, DC

Gabrielle Edgcomb

2039 New Hampshire Ave. NW

Zahara Heckscher

1214 Irving St NW, Washington, DC, USA

Rachel Carson

11701 Berwick Rd.

Rachel Carson

204 Williamsburg Dr., SIlver Spring, MD

Evangeline Bruce

1405 34th St. NW

Lillian Rogers Parks

1846 Vernon Street, Washington DC

Cyrus Adler

1627 R St NW, Washington DC

Carlos Peña Rómulo

2253 R Street, NW, washington, DC

Carlos Peña Rómulo

3422 Garfield St NW

William Meredith

6300 Bradley Blvd.

Rose Elizabeth Cleveland

1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW

O.O. Howard

607 Howard Place NW

Tcheng Yu-hsiu

2001 19th St NW

Jean Johnson

6041 Ridge Drive, Bethesda, MD, USA

Drew Pearson

2820 Dumbarton Ave. NW

Charles Melville Pepper

3211 13th St. NW, Washington DC

Elaine Magarrell

2131 Tunlaw Rd. NW

Terence Vincent Powderly

503 Rock Creek Church Rd. NW

Ella Dorsey

2121 California St. NW

Owen Dodson

1813 16th St. NW, Washington DC

Owen Dodson

1707 Columbia Rd. NW

Cordwainer Smith

2831 29th St NW

Margaret Fishback

1461 S Street Northwest, Washington, DC, USA

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Author Birthdays
in April

George Washington Parke Custis (April 30, 1781)
Edward Everett Hale (April 3, 1822)
Ulysses S. Grant (April 27, 1822)
John Willis Menard (April 3, 1838)
Augustus Goodyear Heaton (April 28, 1844)
Thomas Nelson Page (April 23, 1853)
Henry Berenger (April 22, 1867)
Yan Huiqing (April 2, 1877)
Jessie Redmon Fauset (April 27, 1882)
Caresse Crosby (April 20, 1891)
Robert E. Sherwood (April 4, 1896)
Harlan Miller (April 3, 1897)
Duke Ellington (April 29, 1899)
Whittaker Chambers (April 1, 1901)
Clare Booth Luce (April 10, 1903)
Richard Eberhart (April 5, 1904)
Ward Dorrance (April 30, 1904)
Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905)
William W. Warner (April 2, 1920)
Charles W. Bailey II (April 28, 1929)
Fletcher Knebel (April 28, 1929)
Octave S. Stevenson (April 28, 1930)
Doug Lang (April 11, 1941)
Gil Scott-Heron (April 1, 1949)
Christopher Hitchens (April 13, 1949)
Essex Hemphill (April 16, 1957)
Yvonne Brown (April 18, 1977)