Page 131 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Washington, DC

GEORGE T OWN  129

The Founding of the United Nations
In 1944, a conference held at the Dumbarton Oaks
estate laid the groundwork for establishing the United
Nations. President Franklin Roosevelt and the British Prime
Minister, Winston Churchill, wanted to create a “world
government” that would supervise the peace at the end
of World War II. Roosevelt proposed that a conference be
held in Washington, but at the time the State Department
did not have a room big enough to accommodate all the
delegates. As a solution, Robert Woods Bliss offered the
use of the music room in his former home, Dumbarton
Oaks, for the event.
The structure of the United Nations was settled at the
Dumbarton Oaks Conference and then refined at the San
Francisco Conference a year later when the United Nations’
charter was ratified. The UN Headquarters building, the
permanent home of the organization, was built in New
The conference members in the music York on the East River site after John D. Rockefeller donated
room of Dumbarton Oaks $8.5 million toward its construction.

the Gothic chapel designed by McKim, Mead and White (see Blisses themselves. Examples of
James Renwick. Nearby is the p111), to meet 20th­century Greco­Roman coins, late Roman
grave of John Howard Payne, family needs. They engaged and early Byzantine bas­reliefs,
composer of “Home, Sweet their friend, Beatrix Jones Egyptian fabrics, and
Home,” who died in 1852. The Farrand, one of the few Roman glass and
bust that tops Payne’s monu­ female land scape archi­ bronze ware are just
ment was originally sculpted tects at the time, to some of the highlights.
with a full beard, but Corcoran lay out the grounds. In 1962 Robert Woods
requested a stone mason to Farrand designed a Bliss donated his
“shave the statue” and so now series of terraces that collection of pre­
it is clean shaven. progress from the Columbian art. In order
formal gardens near to house it, architect
the house to the Philip Johnson designed
e Dumbarton Oaks more informal Fountain in a new wing, consisting
landscapes farther Dumbarton Oaks of eight domes sur­
1703 32nd St, NW. Map 2 D2. Tel (202)
339­6401 (call ahead to check times); away from it. rounding a circular
(202) 339­6450 (gardens). Open In 1940 the Blisses moved to garden. Although markedly
House: 2–5pm Tue–Sun. Gardens: California and donated the whole different from the original
2–6pm Tue–Sun (to 5pm Nov–Feb). estate to Harvard University. house, the separate wing
Closed Federal hols. & gardens only. It was then converted into a is well suited to the dramatic
8 = 7 house only. ∑ doaks.org library, research institution, and art collection it houses, which
museum. Many of the 1,400 includes masks, stunning gold
In 1703, a Scottish colonist pieces of Byzantine Art on jewelry from Central America,
named Ninian Beall was granted display were collected by the and Aztec carvings.
around 800 acres of land in this
area. In later years the land was
sold off and in 1801, 22 acres
were bought by Senator
William Dorsey of Maryland,
who proceeded to build a
Federal­style brick home here.
Finan cial difficulties forced him
to sell it shortly after, and over
the next century the property
changed hands many times.
By the time pharmaceutical
heirs Robert and Mildred Woods
Bliss bought the run­down
estate in 1920, it was overgrown
and neglected. The Blisses
altered and expanded the
house, with the architectural
advice of the prestigious firm Swimming pool in the grounds of Dumbarton Oaks

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