A French diplomat who served in England, Tunisia, and Denmark, Jean Jules Jusserand served longest as U.S. Minister to France, living in DC from 1902 to 1925. In that role, he advised four U.S. Presidents, becoming particularly close with Theodore Roosevelt, and worked on the adoption of the Treaty of Versailles that ended WWI.
Jusserand was also a scholar and author who specialized in English literature, writing nonfiction books on William Shakespeare, English travelers of the Middle Ages, and a Literary History of the English People. His With Americans of Past and Present Days (1916) earned the first Pulitzer Prize for History, and his memoir, What Me Befell, was published in 1933.
A granite bench in Rock Creek Park, located on Beach Drive south of Peirce Mill, was dedicated in 1936, the first memorial erected on Federal property to a foreign diplomat. It was designed by Joseph Freedlander, and is engraved with the words “Jusserand: Personal Tribute of Esteem and Affection.”
The Homes
2460 16th St. NW, Washington, DC (Former French Embassy)
This Beaux Arts mansion was owned by Sen. And Mrs. John B. Henderson, and rented to the French government as an Ambassador’s residence through 1936. The exterior is carved Indian limestone with a slate roof. The interior has an entrance hall with a marble mosaic floor, and a marble staircase with wrought iron balustrades. The second floor has a circular drawing room and oak parquetry floors. Formerly the French Embassy and the Embassy of Ghana, it now houses the Council for Professional Recognition.
Also home to: Henri Bonnet Paul Claudel
Jean Jules Jusserand
2460 16th St. NW
Located in Adams Morgan neighborhood, Northwest - East of Rock Creek