Ward Dorrance was a writer and teacher from Jefferson City, Missouri. He studied at the University of Missouri and the Sorbonne before serving in the military during World War II. He taught at the University of Missouri, The College of William and Mary, Cambridge, and Oxford, before moving to Washington in 1958 to teach at Georgetown University until his retirement in 1974.
A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an O. Henry Award, his books include: The Survival of French in the Old District of Sainte Genevieve (1935), We’re From Missouri (1936), Three Ozark Streams (1937), The Sundowners (1940), Where the Rivers Meet (1942), The White Hound: Stories (1959), The Party At Mrs. Purefoy (1969), and A Man About the House (1972).
His papers are housed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and include Dorrance’s extensive correspondence with Thomas Hart Benton, Erskine Caldwell, William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, Katherine Anne Porter, Allen Tate, and Eudora Welty.
Dorrance lived at the first address in the 1960s.
The Homes
1517 30th St. NW, Apt 106, Washington, DC (Francis Dodge House)
Built as a single-family home for Francis Dodge, whose family owned a successful shipping business and several slaves, the mansion is in the Italianate Villa style, and was later converted to condominiums. Next door, a second Downing and Vaux villa was built in a similar style for his brother Robert Dodge; both survive but have been substantially altered over the years. Changes include the addition of a wing to accommodate a Music Room and Library in 1930, as well as the removal of Italianate exterior features, replacement of porches, and enclosure of the entry porch.
1524 29th St. NW, Washington, DC
Ward Dorrance
1517 30th St. NW, Washington DC
Located in Georgetown neighborhood, Northwest- West of Rock Creek
Ward Dorrance
1524 29th St. NW, Washington DC
Located in Georgetown neighborhood, Northwest- West of Rock Creek