Embassy Row

:This article is about Embassy Row in Washington, DC. See Embassy Row (disambiguation) for additional uses.

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Embassy Row is the informal name for a street or area of a city where embassies or other diplomatic installations are concentrated. Perhaps the best-known of these is in Washington, D.C., capital of the United States. Washington's Embassy Row lies along Massachusetts Avenue Northwest and its cross streets between Logan Circle and Ward Circle, although the vast majority of embassies are found between Scott Circle and Wisconsin Avenue.

Related Topics:
Embassies - Washington, D.C. - Capital - United States - Massachusetts Avenue - Northwest - Logan Circle - Ward Circle - Scott Circle - Wisconsin Avenue

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Considered Washington's premier residential address in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Massachusetts Avenue became known for its numerous mansions housing the city's social and political elites. The segment between Scott Circle and Sheridan Circle gained the nickname "Millionaires' Row."

Related Topics:
19th - 20th centuries - Scott Circle - Sheridan Circle - Millionaires' Row

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The first embassy on Millionaires' Row, and still one of the most prominent, was the British Embassy, directly adjacent to the United States Naval Observatory. It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens to combine the offices and the residence of the ambassador, resembling an English country house in the Queen Anne style of architecture.

Related Topics:
British Embassy - United States Naval Observatory - Edwin Lutyens - Ambassador - English - Queen Anne style

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The street began to lose its elite lustre in the 1920s, and some neighborhoods east of Scott Circle decayed as the Great Depression caused many to sell their homes. Fashionable living also shifted from Massachusetts Avenue to 16th Street NW. But the main impetus for the strip's recharacterization was the rise of the United States in the aftermath of World War II. Nations competed to build or maintain grand residences to represent their nation's significance in the capital of the new superpower, and the expansive old estates proved well-suited for use as embassies (and also as lodges of social clubs).

Related Topics:
1920s - Great Depression - 16th Street NW - United States - World War II - Capital - Superpower

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Washington's Embassy Row culture once mirrored the exclusivity of its residences. Since the early 1990s, however, many embassies have begun to sponsor public events to promote business and cultural interests of their countries.

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