Henderson Castle

Washington, D.C., United States

No longer standing

Demolished or destroyed.

Henderson Castle was a large Richardsonian Romanesque mansion built in 1889 at 2200 16th Street NW in Washington, D.C., designed by architect Eugene Clarence Gardner for former Senator John B. Henderson and his wife, Mary Foote Henderson. Sited prominently overlooking the city in what was then mostly undeveloped land, the castle became a hub for entertaining prominent figures including Andrew Carnegie, members of Congress, foreign delegates, and Supreme Court justices. Mary Henderson leveraged her position to reshape the surrounding Meridian Hill neighborhood through decades of real estate development, commissioning architect George Oakley Totten Jr. and others to design grand mansions and embassies on nearby streets. A passionate advocate for women's rights, vegetarianism, and temperance, Mary made national headlines when she and members of the Independent Order of Rechabites destroyed over 1,000 bottles of alcohol from the castle's cellar on 16th Street. Following Mary's death in 1931, the castle was converted into the Castle H Swim and Tennis Club in 1937, later purchased by Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer in 1941. The structure was demolished in January 1949.