Everett House Skip Moskey, Caroline Mesrobian Hickman, John Edward Hasse
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Everett House Skip Moskey, Caroline Mesrobian Hickman, John Edward Hasse © Istanbul Kültür University, ????, 2012 Book Design and Preparation for Printing: Sultan Özer Printed in: ??????????? Certificate No: ????? Date of print: ????? 2012 IKU Press Istanbul Kültür University Ataköy 34156 Bakırköy - Istanbul Phone: 0212 498 45 88 Fax: 0212 498 43 06 E-mail: [email protected] www.iku.edu.tr/ikuyayinevi Certificate No: 14505 İstanbul Kültür University Library Cataloging-in Publication Data: Skip Moskey, Caroline Mesrobian Hickman, John Edward Hasse Everett House, İstanbul: İstanbul Kültür University, 2012 xii+??? s.; ?? cm (İstanbul Kültür University Publication No; 164) ISBN ????????? Everett House Skip Moskey Caroline Mesrobian Hickman John Edward Hasse ABOUT THE AUTHORS Skip Moskey is an historical researcher who writes and speaks on Washington’s Gilded Age (1865-1929). He is also writing a full-length biography of Larz and Isabel Anderson, one of Washington’s most elite socialite couples who lived in Washington between 1898 and 1937. He holds a Ph.D. in linguistics and modern European languages from Georgetown University. Caroline Mesrobian Hickman, an art and architectural historian who received her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has over 30 years of experience researching and publishing on Washington architecture and 20th century American art. She is working on a book about her paternal grandfather, Mihran Mesrobian, who served as an architect in the imperial palace in Istanbul and in Izmir before immigrating to Washington to become one of the city’s leading designers during the 1920s. John Edward Hasse is an author, pianist, museum curator, and lecturer. Since 1984, he has served as Curator of American Music at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, where he founded the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and Jazz Appreciation Month, now celebrated in all 50 states and in 40 countries. He is the author of Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington, the editor of Jazz: The First Century, co- author of Discover Jazz, and the co-producer/co-author of the Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology. He has earned a doctorate, an honorary doctorate, and two Grammy Award nominations. A contributor to The Wall Street Journal and eight encyclopedias, Hasse has frequently worked with the State Department and has lectured on jazz and American music in 20 countries. V ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Skip Moskey – No historian can work without the dedicated assistance and expertise of librarians and archivists, and my heartfelt thanks are due Jeff Bridgers, Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division; Charles Crooks, Bennington Museum Archives; Marjolaine Guisan, Municipal Archives, Vevey (Switzerland); and Andrea Robare, Southern Vermont College. I am also grateful to fellow Everett historian, Tyler Resch, of the Bennington Museum for his generosity in sharing his own research files. Washington historian Peter Penczer gave my manuscript a very close reading and made many helpful suggestions. Can Oğuz, Mine Özgül, and Sevtap Seyyubi, staff of the Embassy of the Republic of Turkey, have been magnificent and gracious in assisting in countless ways, especially making Everett House itself available for study visits. I also owe special, affectionate acknowledgment to my sister Karen Curtin Connelly, who served as my chauffeur and assistant for a research trip to Vermont, helping me slog through archival material and copy what seemed at the time like a thousand pages. Finally, no words can express my indebtedness to James M. Goode, who encouraged me to pursue my interest in Washington’s Gilded Age and convinced me I could and should write about it. Caroline Mesrobian Hickman – Few houses in Washington possess as rich and multifaceted history as the Turkish Ambassador’s Residence, about which there is so little published. I have greatly benefited from the expertise and generosity of numerous individuals regarding the architecture, art, and diplomatic history of the house. Foremost, I thank my co- author Skip Moskey, whose resourcefulness and insights have immeasurably enriched my research. I am indebted to Mine Özgül and Sevtap Eyyubi, attachés, Embassy of the Republic of Turkey, Washington, D.C., who graciously facilitated my research at every turn. Onur Bayramoglu, GPOT, Istanbul Kültür University, gladly fielded many questions and requests to contact Turkish scholars and the descendants of Turkish ambassadors who VII served in Washington during the 1930s and early 1940s. For the section of my chapter about the architect George Oakley Totten and his work for the U. S. Embassy in Istanbul, I thank Vicken Y. Totten, granddaughter of the architect; Jane C. Loeffler, architectural historian; Thomas J. Carolan, Jr., former U. S. Consular General, Istanbul; Andrea F. Schoenfeld, historian, EHT Traceries; Marie- Laure Crosnier-Leconte, chief curator, Institut National du Patrimoine, Paris; Isabelle J. Gournay, professor, School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, University of Maryland; Angelina Rotella, public affairs specialist, Ronald J. Tomasso and Kevin Lee Sarring, project architects, Overseas Buildings Operations, U.S. Dept. of State; David A. Langbart, National Archives, College Park, MD; M. Sükrü Hanioglu, professor of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University; and Thomas Mann, reference librarian, Library of Congress. For the section that discusses the building of Everett House, I gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the Washington, D. C. architectural historians Kim Williams and Pamela Scott; and James Goode, historian of Washington architecture. Regarding E. H. Everett, my thanks to Lisa McCowan Foley, granddaughter of E. H. Everett; and Emily Larson, curator, Licking County Historical Society, Newark, Ohio. Concerning the art at the residence, including the Allesandro Allori mythological paintings, I thank Loisann Dowd White, head of Reference Services, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA. For the Tiffany Studios glass mosaics, I am most grateful to Edith Crouch, Tiffany Studios mosaics author; Jennifer Perry Thalheimer, curator and collection manager, and Christina Bennett Amato, registrar, Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, Winter Park, FL; Arlie Sulka, Lillian Nassau Gallery, NY; Steven Stelz, Stelz Studios, Flemington, NJ; and Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, Anthony W. and Lulu C. Wang Curator of American Decorative Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. For the Ottoman silk textiles, my great appreciation to Julia M. Brennan, Textile Conservation Services; and Sumru Belger Krody, senior curator, Eastern Hemisphere Collections, Textile Museum, Washington, D. C. Concerning the diplomatic history of the house, my heartfelt thanks to Selma Ertegün Göksel; Selçuk Esenbel, professor, Department of History, Bogaziçi University, Istanbul; and George S. Harris, historian of modern Turkish studies. John Edward Hasse – For their kind and generous help, the author wishes to warmly and gratefully thank Ambassador Namik Tan, Can Oğuz, Mine Özgül, and Yağmur Coşar of the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C. In Istanbul, Mensur Akgun, Sylvia Tiryaki, and Onur Bayramoglu of Istanbul Kültür University’s Global Political Trends Center were of immeasurable support. Mica Ertegun graciously granted permission to quote from interviews with her late husband, Ahmet Ertegun. His sister Selma Ertegün Göksel graciously answered a number of questions. In Washington, DC, my scholarly colleagues Stephen T. Moskey, Caroline Hickman, and Maurice Jackson provided encouragement and critique. Brenda Nelson-Strauss and Ronda Sewald of the Indiana University Archives of African American Music and Culture facilitated access to an oral history of Ahmet Ertegun. Cara Sabolcik of the St. John’s College Library dug up rare yearbook and newspaper articles. My friends Kip Lornell, Tad Lathrop, Bruce Talbot, and Jay Bruder—all experts in the musical subject matter— read the chapter carefully and offered very helpful suggestions. To all these fine people, I bow deeply with gratitude. AUTHORS’ NOTE The Turkish Ambassador’s Residence is one of many grand examples of early 20th century architecture in Washington that now serve foreign governments. Built as the winter residence of Edward H. Everett, an Ohio industrialist who sought to enter society in the nation’s capital, it assumed its new purpose in the 1930s as the embassy and ambassador’s residence of the recently founded Republic of Turkey. The building speaks to the cultural, social, and political history of the national capital and those who put their stamp on the city’s built environment. When Mensur Akgün and Sylvia Tiryaki, directors of the Global Political Trends Center, Istanbul Kültür University, asked us to contribute chapters on the history of the house, we already knew something of its extraordinary heritage. The imposing presence on Sheridan Circle, distinguished by equally opulent interior spaces, has witnessed nearly a century of events critical to the development of Washington’s social and cultural history and Turkish-American relations. What we discovered about its commissioner, E. H Everett, and architect, George Oakley Totten; world-class artwork and meticulous restoration; role in smashing Washington’s racial barriers as the site of the Ertegun brothers’ jazz sessions, make for exceptionally heady reading. Part of our charge and challenge was to make a critical assessment of the literature on and oral