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Pre-1650 |
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The site of Woodley and its environs are the hunting grounds of the Nacotchtank Indians whose village is on the far side of the Anacostia River. |
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1668 |
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Lord Baltimore awards to Henry Darnell a land grant that extends from the Potomac River into what is now Montgomery County. Woodley's grounds comprise a small piece of the grant. |
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Woodley, as a part of the 795-acre Rock of Dumbarton tract, is patented to Colonel Ninian Beall. |
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1757 |
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Birth of Philip Barton Key |
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1776 |
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The Declaration of Independence is signed. |
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Woodley Lodge, an English manor house in Barkshire wasa built in 1777 by James Whebble. There is strong evidence that Phillip Barton Key visited the house while he was studying law in London and later used both the name parts of the design when he built his own Woodley overlooking the new Federal capital.
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1783 |
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The Treaty of Paris ends the American Revolution. |
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1787 |
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The Constitution is signed. |
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1792 |
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The cornerstone of the White House is laid. A 998-acre tract of the Rock of Dumbarton (including Woodley) is transferred to Revolutionary War General Uriah Forrest and Benjamin Stoddert, first Secretary of the Navy. |
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1798 |
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Uriah Forrest sells 250 acres to Philip Barton Key that will one day become Woodley. |
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President and Mrs. John Adams move into the White House. |
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1801 |
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Philip Barton Key and Ann Plater Key move into Woodley. |
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1803 |
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President Thomas Jefferson buys the Louisiana Territory. |
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1814 |
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British troops capture and burn Washington. Woodley would have provided a spectacular vantage point to view the conflagration. |
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1820 |
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The Missouri Compromise |
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1836 |
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Texas wins its independence from Mexico. Martin Van Buren is elected President. |
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1837 |
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1846 |
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The Mexican War |
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Lorenzo Thomas purchases Woodley. |
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1861-1865 |
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The Civil War |
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1862 |
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Lucy Berry and her two sons are manumitted at Woodley. |
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1866 |
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1867 |
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The United States buys Alaska from the Czar. Robert J. Walker plays a key role. |
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1876 |
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Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone. |
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1890 |
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1893 |
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Woodley as pictured in 1893 just after it had been extensively modernized with electricity and state-of-the-art plumbing and heating systems to make it a suitable summer house for President Grover Cleveland and his family. |
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General John J. Pershing, a future guest of honor at a Woodley dinner, rides into Mexico after Pancho Villa but returns empty-handed. |
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Woodley c. 1916 where Colonel Edward House carried on secret negotiations with the Germans prior to the United States declaration of war. |
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1917 |
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The United States enters World War I. |
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1921 |
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Woodley back portch and lawn during Sally Long Ellis residence. |
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1925 |
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F. Scott Fitzgerald, a direct descendant of Philip Barton Key, publishes The Great Gatsby. |
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1928 |
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1929 |
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1933 |
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President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ushers in the New Deal. |
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1939 |
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The Nazi-Soviet Pact is signed. Whittaker Chambers visits Woodley to inform Adolph Berle of the extent of Communist infiltration in the State Department. |
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Woodley c. 1940 in its final incarnation as a private house as the residence of Henry S. Stimson, Secretary of State under President Hoover and Secretary of War under both Presidents Roosevelt and Truman |
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1941 |
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Pearl Harbor is attacked. The President's first call is to Henry Stimson who was having lunch at Woodley. The United States enters World War II. |
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1946 |
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Henry Stimson gives Woodley to Philips Academy, and it ceases to be a private home. |
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Maret School purchases 7 and 3/4 acres of the Woodley property including the house. |
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