Little Green House on K Street

The Little Green House on K Street was a residence in Washington DC, USA, where the notoriously corrupt deals of Warren Harding’s presidency (1921–23) are believed to have been planned.

Little Green House on K Street
1625 K Street in the early 1920s
General information
Address1625 K Street, NW
Town or cityWashington, DC
CountryUnited States
Completed1880
Demolished1941

History

The Little Green House on K Street was situated at 1625 K Street, NW, in Washington. It had been constructed in 1880 by a retired attorney, J. B. Edmonds of Iowa.

The house was rented by associates of President Harding’s Attorney General Harry Daugherty, including Jess Smith and Howard Mannington, known as the Ohio Gang.[1] According to testimony before the Senate Committee investigating the Teapot Dome bribery scandal,[2][3][4] it was the gang’s unofficial headquarters, where many of the deals were hatched. The testimony before the Senate Committee broke down when the key witness, Roxie Stinson, admitted before the committee that she had never even saw the "little green house". The investigation was further undermined when the other key witness, Gaston Means, retracted his entire testimony in an affidavit and he admitted to jointly coaching Stinson in her testimony along with Senator Burton Wheeler.[5]

The building was razed in 1941 to make way for the 12-story Commonwealth Building.[6]

Legacy

The name entered the American lexicon as a symbol of political corruption and cronyism.[7] The Chicago Tribune described the home as one of "the symbols of a nation's disgrace".[8]

In 1934, Congressman Fred Britten, a Republican of Illinois, famously compared the Red House on R Street in Georgetown, where the original New Dealers strategized during the early years of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration, to the Little Green House on K Street.[9][10] The R Street address became known as the Brain Trust's Little Green House on K Street.[10][11][12]

During the scandal involving the extramarital affairs of Senator John Ensign and Congressman Chip Pickering in 2009, commentators frequently compared their C Street homes to the Little Green House on K Street.[13][14]

References
  1. "Mannington is Mystery Man in Mystery House," Chicago Daily Tribune, March 23, 1924
  2. Davis, Hilda Emery; and Davis, Garry. "Letters to World Citizens", p. 50. World Government House, 2004. ISBN 0-9706483-7-5. Accessed October 12, 2009.
  3. McCartney, Laton. "The Teapot Dome Scandal: How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and Tried to Steal the Country", p. 72. Random House, 2009. ISBN 0-8129-7337-2. Accessed October 12, 2009.
  4. New Light Shed on Deals of New York Liquor Rings, Los Angeles Times, March 22, 1924
  5. The Inside Tragedy of the Harding Tragedy by Harry M. Daugherty and Thomas Dixon
  6. Boese, Kent. "Lost Washington: The Little Green House" Archived 2010-06-16 at the Wayback Machine, Greater Greater Washington. Accessed October 12, 2009.
  7. "The Little Green House Loses Its Secretiveness", The New York Times, September 2, 1931
  8. What Sacrifice, Mr. Willkie? Chicago Tribune, Oct 1, 1940
  9. "Britten Names Hideaway of Brain Trust," Chicago Daily Tribune, August 21, 1934
  10. "New Deal Run In 'Little Red House' Is Charge Hurled On House Floor" Hartford Courant, August 21, 1934
  11. Moore, William. Mrs. Roosevelt in R Street House? Chicago Daily Tribune, May 8, 1943
  12. Knox Explains Dinner at Mystery House, Chicago Tribune, May 4, 1943
  13. Cal Thomas, Faithful Fellowship on C Street, The Washington Post, June 26, 2009
  14. Jacob M. Appel, Hate the Husband? Sue the Mistress, October 6, 2009

The Inside Tragedy of the Harding Tragedy by Harry M. Daugherty and Thomas Dixon

Further reading

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