[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 99 (Tuesday, June 10, 2025)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E551-E552]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   RECOGNIZING THE DACOR BACON HOUSE

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 10, 2025

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the DACOR Bacon House 
(the ``House''), formerly known as the Ringgold-Carroll House. The 
House, a building in the District of Columbia, celebrates its 
bicentennial today.
  The House is situated on land previously owned by David Burnes, whose 
other landholdings now house the National Mall, the White House and 
other notable D.C. landmarks.
  The House was constructed in 1825 by Tench Ringgold using enslaved 
individuals. Shortly after being built, the House's boarders included 
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Marshall and occasionally other 
Supreme Court Justices, including Joseph Story, Gabriel Duvall, Smith 
Thompson and Henry Baldwin.
  In 1835, the House was sold to former Maryland Governor Samuel 
Sprigg, who gifted it to his daughter and son-in-law, Sally Sprigg and 
William Thomas Carroll, the Clerk of the Supreme Court. When the 
Carrolls owned the House, it hosted numerous dignitaries, including 
President Abraham Lincoln.
  From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th 
century, the House remained a home for dignitaries. Residents included 
Russian Imperial Minister Nikolai Shishkin and Chief Justice of the 
Supreme Court Melville W. Fuller, who hosted Presidents Grover 
Cleveland and Theodore Roosevelt, as well as William Howard Taft during 
his tenure as Secretary of War.
  Illinois Senator Medill McCormick and his wife, future Congresswoman 
Ruth Hanna McCormick, resided in the House during the 1920s, where they 
entertained lawmakers and their spouses.
  In 1925, the House was purchased by Congressman Robert Low Bacon and 
his wife, Virginia Murray Bacon. Virginia Murray Bacon founded the 
Bacon House Foundation, which worked with the DACOR Education and 
Welfare Foundation to form the DACOR Bacon

[[Page E552]]

House Foundation, which maintains and preserves the House today.
  Since 1986, the House has served as DACOR's headquarters, regularly 
hosting educational programming related to foreign policy, including 
professional development and networking. The House continues to welcome 
dignitaries, including the numerous ambassadors, military officers, 
political appointees and members of Congress who are members of DACOR.
  I ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing the 
DACOR Bacon House for its contributions to American history.

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