Congressional Cemetery. The Hiram W. Johnson House. The Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress. The Sewall-Belmont House. The Supreme Court Building. The US Capitol. The Marine Barracks and Commandant’s House. The Washington Navy Yard.
What do these famous sites all have in common? They are National Historic Landmarks, and have been designated thus by the National Parks Service.
As of today, there is another: The Furies House. To be entirely pedantic, the final signature, by Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, came on September 2, but it was not announced until today, first during an event held by President Biden at the Department of Labor at which he designated the Frances Perkins Homestead a National Monument, during which five further women-related National Historic Landmarks were mentioned, and then at 4 PM when the official announcement was released.
It’s been a long time in coming, from the first ANC 6B Planning and Zoning Meeting on January 7, 2016, through the full ANC meeting, and then the D.C. Historic Preservation Review Board, which deemed the property was to be added to the D.C. Inventory of Historic Sites. From this, it was then selected by the Department of the Interior to be added to the National Registry of Historic Places.
Starting in 2021, the National Parks Service began the process of upgrading the status to a National Historic Landmark. After thorough professional evaluation, a meeting presenting their findings here, and a couple of internal meetings , the decision to proceed finally happened, with Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (that’s her, above) signing off on it on September 2.
The designation does not change anything about the house. In their words, the “National Historic Landmark program is honorific and carries no additional regulatory burden.” It does, however, come with a cool new plaque that will be added to the house some time next year, to go with the National Registry of Historic Places plaque that already graces its front.
If you want to read way, way more about the Furies and their house in the NHL Nomination form here (pdf).
We will keep you updated, especially when the plaque is installed.
This just leaves one open question: Who, exactly, was Hiram W. Johnson. But we will leave that for a future column.