Last Saturday morning, under grey skies and whipping winds, DCist rolled out of bed to take a walking tour of Embassy Row, one of the 60 free tours being offered in this weekend's WalkingTown DC, an event offered by Cultural Tourism DC. Like Sommer, I was initially sceptical that there was much to learn about the Dupont Circle neighborhood, a familiar stomping ground for many Washington young people. But on the Embassy Row tour, professional guide Mary Anne Hoffman swiftly turns the world of stately diplomatic enclaves into a vivid snapshot of American aristocracy and one generation's fall from decadence.

Hoffman first leads her group to the Dupont fountain, inside what Civil War-era residents called Pacific Circle, because of its perceived remoteness from the U.S. Capitol. Around the circle, wealthy 19th Century Americans began constructing elaborate "party palaces". Families with familiar names like Longworth, McLean, Cannon, Sheridan and Roosevelt came from across the country to claim a foothold in the Capital as it rapidly became a locus of global power. They wanted to flaunt their new wealth, which came from California gold mines, publishing and investments in the growing industrial sector. What resulted is a hodgepodge of architectural styles, each considered the latest craze when constructed. I never imagined the ornate design of what is now the Indonesian Embassy was an homage to the White Star line of cruise ships. Everything from windows to chandeliers resemble the Titanic-era ocean liners -- the height of fashion in turn-of-the-Century America.

As the tour progresses, the world of outrageous all-night parties where presidents, industrialists and newspapermen mingled is brought to life by stories of drunken hostesses on horseback trotting down Massachusetts Ave. stark naked at midnight. It's easy to see pictures of prim and proper ladies and imagine subdued nights of tea and biscuits. Hoffman's vivid stories of social excesses make these architects of modern Washington seem like a beguiling group with which to spend a Saturday night.

Of course, with the Depression bearing down on super-rich businessmen and politicians it became unfeasible to maintain D.C.'s gold-leafed ballrooms and mahogany-lined libraries. As you're guided down the street, lavish parties in private homes are shut down as families are forced to sell their mansions at substantial losses. Many homes were handed over to charitable societies such as the Red Cross, or private associations, such as the Cosmos Club. By the 1960s countries began jockeying for position along Massachusetts Ave. as it transformed into Embassy Row.

It's hard to ignore Hoffman's sorrow as she points to newer office and apartment buildings around the Dupont neighborhood. She laments them as "modern awfulness" interspersed with palatial examples of American opulence. Even the most jaded local can imagine bumping into a young Eleanor Roosevelt on her way to call on neighbors or discuss social issues of the day in the same spots where smokers now gather outside 22nd Street bars.

In many ways the history of Embassy Row is also the history of the country's social, political and economic development. If you amble past embassies and only see islands of foreign soil, it's worth the walk from Dupont to Sheridan Circle under the enthusiastic care of a true lover of D.C.'s bygone days.

The Embassy Row walking tour is being offered free on Saturday, April 21 from 10 a.m. to Noon. Meets outside the Dupont Circle Metro station's south entrance, by the pay phones