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On a hill overlooking the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C., sits Cedar Hill, the last home of orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass. In 1877, the year he took up residence there, he was appointed United States Marshal for the nation’s capital, the first African American to hold the post. The elegant house is located less than a hundred miles from where he was born into slavery on a farm on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
I visited Cedar Hill—now the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site—on a recent trip to Washington, D.C., and it was in the top three highlights of my visit, along with the National Gallery of Art and seeing President Obama’s motorcade. Surprisingly, of the thirteen people on our tour of the house, seven of them were kids of varying ages—and they appeared to be enjoying themselves.
Our guide shared the story of Douglass’ remarkable life and his journey from slavery to being an advisor to numerous presidents, including Abraham Lincoln, and an active proponent for the abolitionist movement and also for women’s suffrage. Some 2,000 books lined the walls of his library (at right), where he penned his third autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. The Victorian Renaissance carved oak armchair was originally made 
for the U.S. House of Representatives.
In the parlor, resting on top of a piano, is a violin (at left) Douglass brought back from Scotland, and he often played the instrument to entertain guests and his family. His grandson, whom he taught to play, was one of the first classical African American violinists.
Cedar Hill’s vantage point offers a gorgeous view of the city, and although much has changed since Douglass’ day, one landmark would have been familiar to him—the dome of the U.S. Capitol, which was completed while he lived in the house. –Shannon McKenna Schmidt
Charles Dickens’s former summer home, dubbed “Bleak House,” has recently been put up for sale for £2 million. (Click here to see the listing for the house, which has six-bedrooms, a sea-facing study, as well as a music room, gymnasium and substantial gardens.) It also retains some original features including a mahogany staircase and fireplaces. The contents of the study, including a desk that may have been used by Dickens to pen David Copperfield, are up for sale under a separate negotiation.
The cliff-top mansion in the coastal town of Broadstairs, Kent, was home to the author during the summers of 1849, 1850 and 1851 when he was working on David Copperfield. The name “Bleak House” is actually a misnomer given to the house long after Dickens’s death in 1870–it was not the original mansion on which that book was based, which is believed to be located in St Albans, Hertfordshire. He did, however, begin formulating the story for Bleak House (considered by some to be his best novel) while living in the house, which he described lovingly as his “airy nest.” Built in 1801 as the residence of a Napoleonic Wars-era fort commander, the house was known as Fort House during Dickens’ time.
The coastal town of Broadstairs, which he called “our English watering place,” is proud of its Dickens connections, boasting three more addresses where the writer stayed on his breaks from London. The original Betsey Trotwood, Copperfield’s great-aunt, is said to have lived at a house in the town which is now known as Dickens House Museum. –Joni Rendon
