A Toast to Pierre L’Enfant at Dumbarton House


In 1791, Pierre-Charles L’Enfant arrived in Georgetown on the evening of March 9 to begin work on the soon-to be nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. The Mayor of Georgetown had not gotten the memo, and L’Enfant felt less than welcomed and complained to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. In recent decades, Washingtonians have been making up for that with an ongoing annual “Welcome, Pierre!” reception. Friends and history lovers raised a toast the city’s designer March 9 at Dumbarton House, headquarters for The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America.

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