Elliott Coues House
   HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Elliott Coues House
OR:
Elliott Coues House on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

The Elliott Coues House is a historic house at 1726 N Street NW, in the
Dupont Circle Dupont Circle (or DuPont Circle) is a traffic circle, park, neighborhood and historic district in Northwest Washington, D.C. The Dupont Circle neighborhood is bounded approximately by 16th Street NW to the east, 22nd Street NW ...
neighborhood of
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
Built about 1880, it was the home of 19th-century historian and ornithologist
Elliott Coues Elliott Ladd Coues (; September 9, 1842 – December 25, 1899) was an American army surgeon, historian, ornithologist, and author. He led surveys of the Arizona Territory, and later as secretary of the United States Geological and Geographic ...
(1842–99) from about 1887 until his death. Coues helped found the
American Ornithologists' Union The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its m ...
in 1883 and edited about 15 volumes of journals, memoirs, and diaries by famous Western explorers and fur traders. The house was declared a
National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
in 1975. and  


Description and history

The Elliott Coues House is located in Washington's Dupont Circle neighborhood, on the south side of N Street, west of
Scott Circle Scott Circle is an area in the northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. that is centred on the junction of Massachusetts Avenue, Rhode Island Avenue, and 16th Street, N.W. Originally a neighborhood recreational area, unlike Dupont Circle where poli ...
between 17th and 18th Streets. It is the left one of two similar painted brick
row house In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house (British English, UK) or townhouse (American English, US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings party ...
s, which were probably built around 1880. Coues' house is the simpler of the two; it is stories in height with a dormered gable roof and a tall basement. Its facade is three bays wide, the left two taken up by a projecting rectangular bay. The entrance is in the right bay of the basement level, framed by pilasters and entablature that rise to also enclose the first-floor window. The building is not architecturally distinguished. Elliott Coues moved into this house in about 1887, and it remained his principal residence for the rest of his life. A native of
New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
, Coues served in the
United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
from 1862 until 1881, pursuing a scientific interest in birds as an avocation. From 1873 to 1876 he served in the Pacific Northwest as a surveyor and naturalist for the U.S. Northern Boundary Commission, and in 1880 he became secretary and naturalist for the predecessor to the
United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...
. In the latter role he edited and published a great deal of material documenting the days of the "Old West". In 1883 he helped found the
American Ornithologists' Union The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its m ...
, also holding a chair in the anatomy department at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
.


See also

*
List of National Historic Landmarks in Washington, D.C. The District of Columbia, capital of the United States, is home to 75 National Historic Landmarks. The National Historic Landmark program is operated under the auspices of the National Park Service, and recognizes structures, districts, objects, a ...
* National Register of Historic Places listings in the upper NW Quadrant of Washington, D.C. *
Mary Emily Bates Coues Mary Emily Bates Coues (, Bennett; after first marriage, Bates; after second marriage, Coues; August 26, 1835 – February 16, 1906) was an American suffragist and society woman of the long nineteenth century, committed to women's rights, spiritua ...


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Coues, Elliott, House National Historic Landmarks in Washington, D.C. Dupont Circle Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C.