Bowie-Sevier House, Washington D.C.

The Bowie-Sevier House is one of Georgetown’s grand old survivors. This Federal-style residence was built around 1810 by Washington Bowie, a merchant, real estate speculator, church vestryman, and militia officer, as well as one of Georgetown’s wealthiest men.

Set high in Georgetown, the house gave Bowie and his large family sweeping views south toward the busy port below. In the early 19th century, that was not just scenery but a live feed of commerce, gossip, and ships coming and going. Inside, the spacious rooms were made for entertaining, which meant Bowie could host guests in proper style while reminding everyone, very politely, that he had done rather well for himself...

Architecturally, the house has plenty to say. It absorbed a smaller, earlier dwelling into its design, because even historic mansions sometimes start with a renovation project... The facade combines Adamesque and Classical Revival details, giving the building the polished look of a period when symmetry, proportion, and polished restraint were the height of architectural good taste. The result is elegant without being fussy, and grand without shouting — very Georgetown, in other words...

Over the years, the Bowie-Sevier House passed through the hands of only four families: the Bowies, the Nicholls, the Hollingsworths, and the Seviers. That is a remarkably short list for a house with such a long life. Each family helped preserve its character, keeping the building’s dignity intact through changing fashions, fortunes, and probably more than a few arguments over wallpaper...

Then, in 1953, after the death of Mrs. Ella Sevier, the house entered a new chapter. In her will, she left it to the Episcopal Church ministry to be used as a retirement home for Episcopal women and as a memorial to her husband’s great-grandfather, General John Sevier. So, the house moved from private grandeur to public service — still dignified, still historic, but with a gentler daily rhythm. For a mansion built to impress, that was surely not a bad second act.