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Socialite and philanthropist Alice Pike Barney (1857-1931) is best remembered for her unsuccessful attempt to transform Washington, D. C. into the nation’s cultural capitol—her failure on that account is sadly demonstrated by the fate of the house she built in Sheridan Circle. The Alice Pike Barney Studio House, built in 1902, was the second building on Sheridan Circle to be designed by one of Washington’s premiere architects Waddy B. Wood. In the early 20th century the building was used for salons, musical performances and theatrical productions. Among the many guests entertained by Alice Pike Barney were renowned artists, actors, diplomats and politicians – among them U.S. presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Barney furnished the house with lavish Arts and Crafts features like Mercer tiles and, most notably, furniture made by the Cincinnati Art Carvers. Barney was an accomplished painter and studied with Henry and William H. Fry and Benn Pitman in Cincinnati. These historically important interiors were largely in tact when Barney’s daughters donated Studio House to the Smithsonian Institution in 1961. In 1999 the Smithsonian put the house up for sale and all the furnishings were auctioned off effectively destroying one of Washington’s and the nation’s most important Arts and Crafts interiors. The entire site (the Barney Studio House and the adjacent 1 ½ story stucco carriage house built in 1911) is now listed in the D.C. Inventory of Historic Sites and the National Register of Historic Places, and the present owner Latvia claims to have restored what was left of the interiors. Our chairs were removed directly from the house and retain the Smithsonian catalogue numbers. Their style and quality is more comparable to Will Price’s Rose Valley furniture than to other Cincinnati art-carved furniture.
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