Owners and Tenants, 1819-1956

• Decatur
• Hyde de Neuville
• de Tuyll
• Clay
• Van Buren
• Livingston
• Vaughn
• Gadsby
• Dallas
• Gales
• John & James King
• Appleton
• Orr
• Benjamin
• McBlair
• United States Army
• Edward Beale &
  Mary Beale
• Truxtun Beale
• Marie Beale

TIMELINE OF OWNERS AND TENANTS
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John H. McBlair, Acting owner for Gadsby heirs (1861-1872)
The United States Government, U.S. Army

After the death of Providence Gadsby in 1861, Decatur House passed to her son-in-law, grocer John McBlair. Although it is likely that during the next twelve years McBlair owned Decatur House jointly with other Gadsby descendants, no details are known.

Shortly after inheriting the house, McBlair rented it for $200 a month to the United States Government, who used it during the Civil War as offices for the Subsistence Bureau as well as quarters for Union soldiers. The agreement stipulated that the military would leave at the termination of hostilities with the Confederacy. However after the war’s end, the government maintained its occupancy of Decatur House, now as the Office of the Quartermaster General, who used the building for the storing and protection of their public records. By this time ownership of Decatur House seemingly now caused John McBlair some financial strain. In a letter dated March 5, 1866, McBlair complained to his tenants of the high level of taxation on his property. In a September 4, 1866 letter, McBlair also protested the low rent paid by the government for storage warehouses they erected on the lot behind the carriage house – he was paid as low as $10 a month for some of these warehouses. McBlair was relieved of this burden by January of1872, when Decatur House was sold to a new family of owners.

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