[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 53 (Friday, April 4, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E517]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            TWIN OAKS ESTATE

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. BILL SALI

                                of idaho

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, April 4, 2008

  Mr. SALI. Madam Speaker, atop a hill on Woodley Road in northwest 
Washington, DC is a 26-room mansion known as the Twin Oaks estate, 
which served as the official residence of nine ambassadors from the 
Republic of China between 1937 and 1978. During its heyday, the Twin 
Oaks estate welcomed to its 17.6-acre compound countless American 
dignitaries and friends in the local Chinese community, to meet with 
ROC ambassadors and representatives and chart a course of friendship 
and cooperation between our two nations. Among the more prominent 
guests to visit the estate were U.S. Secretaries of State, Senators and 
Congressmen and U.S. military leaders including General Dwight D. 
Eisenhower and General George Marshall. Distinguished visitors from 
Taiwan to the estate included Madame Chiang Kai-shek and the future 
Republic of China Presidents: Mr. Chiang Ching-kuo, Mr. Lee Teng-hui 
and Mr. Chen Shui-bian.
  The Twin Oaks estate also played a role in the termination of 
official ties between the United States and the Republic of China, 
Taiwan, in the winter of 1978. During those uncertain days and weeks, 
ownership of the Twin Oaks estate was transferred to an American 
private organization; later returning to the ownership of the Taiwan 
government in 1982. Since then, the Twin Oaks estate has again become a 
popular spot in Washington, DC, hosting many social functions each 
year, at which Washingtonians continue to admire the estate's gorgeous 
peony gardens, its Georgian Revival architecture, and its priceless 
Ch'ing dynasty antiques.
  The Twin Oaks estate was built in 1888 by the family of Mr. Gardiner 
Greene Hubbard, founder of the National Geographic Society. In 
celebrating this historic site's 120 year history we also celebrate the 
enactment of the Taiwan Relations Act, which protects the Republic of 
China's legal ownership of the estate. May the Twin Oaks estate remain 
a symbol of United States-Taiwan friendship in our Nation's Capital for 
the next 120 years.

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