The oldest structure owned by the Smithsonian, the Holt House, sits on the grounds of the National Zoo – yet you’ve likely never visited it, nor possibly known of its existence. The house, which can be seen from Adams Mill Road, was built in 1810. The estate was one of many large country estates built on Rock Creek Park during the early years of our Federal city. The house is within the boundaries of an old land grant known as “Pretty Prospects.” Now, the Holt House is one of the few estates that remains, and it’s not in great shape.
The house was likely built by George Johnson, a nephew of the first governor of Maryland. Johnson’s close connections with Dr. William Thornton, the first architect of the Capitol, suggest Thornton might have helped design Holt House. The house passed hands a few times before Dr. Henry Holt purchased the property in 1844. He sold the house to the National Zoo in 1889. At that point, Holt House was in poor condition and in need of extensive repair. Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. advised the zoo’s planners to use the architecture of Holt House as inspiration for design of the park.
The National Zoo used the Holt House as administrative offices for nearly a hundred years, abandoning the building in 1988. The house, boarded up, hasn’t been touched much in the passing 20 plus years – as the zoo has lacked the funding to renovate the structure.
In 2005, the D.C. Preservation League listed the building as one of its 10 most endangered places. In 2002 a grant to assess the house found that “massive collapse of the house is a real possibility; partial collapse or failure of a segment of the framing is a distinct probability.” Efforts are underway to restore the house and make sure it continues to stand, but as of now it doesn’t seem like any progress has been made.
Holt House is one of the few remaining structures in the Rock Creek Park area illustrating the early years of our city. Beyond the house itself, the property was home to D.C.’s oldest millseats, the city’s first Quaker burial ground, a post-Civil War African American cemetery, and the Civil War hospital known as Cliffburne Barracks.
