[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 57 (Thursday, April 10, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E576]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               120TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TWIN OAKS ESTATE

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. DAVID WU

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 10, 2008

  Mr. WU. Madam Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the 29th 
anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act and the 120th anniversary of 
the Twin Oaks estate in Washington, DC, a National Historic Site and 
the former residence of nine ambassadors from the Republic of China.
  The Twin Oaks estate, located on Woodley Road in Northwest 
Washington, DC, is considered the largest privately-owned estate in the 
District of Columbia. The land upon which Twin Oaks rests belonged 
originally to Uriah Forrest, an American general in the Revolutionary 
War, a member of the first Continental Congress, and one of Maryland's 
first delegates to Congress. In 1888, the property was sold to Mr. 
Gardiner Green Hubbard, founder and first president of the National 
Geographic Society. Mr. Hubbard commissioned one of America's leading 
architects at the time, Richard Allen, to design and construct a 26-
room house in the early Colonial (Georgian) Revival style. Mr. 
Hubbard's son-in-law, telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell, once 
lived at the estate.
  In 1937, the Twin Oaks estate was rented to the Government of the 
Republic of China, and in 1947 the property was formally sold to that 
Government. The estate remained in possession of the Republic of China 
Government after it moved to Taiwan at the end of the Chinese Civil War 
in 1949. From 1937 to 1978, the Twin Oaks estate was the official 
residence of nine Republic of China ambassadors, who used the estate 
for social gatherings and business meetings with senior members of the 
U.S. government and members of the diplomatic corps.
  In late 1978, President Jimmy Carter announced that the United States 
would shift diplomatic relations from the Republic of China to the 
People's Republic of China on January 1. 1979. Fearing that the 
People's Republic of China would claim ownership of all its assets in 
the United States, the Republic of China government in Taiwan asked 
Thomas G. Corcoran, Sr. to help arrange for the sale of the Twin Oaks 
estate to a private American civic organization, the Friends of Free 
China Association, co-chaired by Senator Barry Goldwater.
  However, the passage of the Taiwan Relations Act, signed into law on 
April 10, 1979, rendered the transaction unnecessary and ensured that 
Twin Oaks would remain under ownership of the Republic of China.
  Twin Oaks is an invaluable symbol of friendship between the peoples 
of the United States and Taiwan. Today let us honor the 120th 
anniversary of the Twin Oaks estate and the 29th anniversary of the 
Taiwan Relations Act.

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