has operated an array of social service programs from this grand Federal style house, also known as “the Maples.” Friendship House is among the city’s oldest such agencies,founded in by Adelaide Rochefort and Ida Green in rented rooms at Tenth and M streets,SE.Its front door is now found on the opposite side of the building at D Street. The Maples was built in for Captain William Mayne Duncanson,a wealthy trader who invested heavily in Washington real estate and entertained lavishly.When he built this house,stables,and slave quarters,the area was undeveloped.After a visit, George Washington wrote of the Maples as a “fine house in the woods.” By ,however,Duncanson’s high life had ended with the failure of his businesses,and he was forced to move.The property stood vacant until ,when the U.S.Army made it a hospital during the Battle of Bladensburg (War of ). In Francis Scott Key,author of The Star Spangled Banner ,purchased and restored the property. Later owners included Major Augustus A. Nicholson,quartermaster general of the Marines, who made it an unofficial Marine headquarters and a center of Washington social life from until . In Emily Edson Briggs,a pioneer- ing woman journalist,purchased the Maples. Briggs wrote a gossipy Washington column signed “Olivia”and was the first woman to receive White House press credentials.In Briggs’s heirs sold the Maples to an anonymous buyer who donated it to Friendship House. A Fine House In the Woods ,
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