The Embassy of the United States in Paris is the

diplomatic mission A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually den ...

of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in the French Republic. The embassy is the oldest diplomatic mission of the United States.

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

and some of the other Founding Fathers were the earliest United States Ambassadors to France. The chancery building is located at 2 , on the northwest corner of the

Place de la Concorde The Place de la Concorde () is one of the major public squares in Paris, France. Measuring in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées. ...

, in the 8th arrondissement of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

Buildings

The U.S. State Department owns three buildings in Paris to support its diplomatic, consular, trade and cultural activities, which are: the chancery building, the Hôtel de Talleyrand and the

Hôtel de Pontalba The Hôtel de Pontalba is a hôtel particulier, a type of large townhouse of France, at 41 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It has been the official residence of the United States Ambassador to France since 197 ...

(ambassador's residence). More details about the latter two buildings can be found in the Secretary of State's Register of Culturally Significant Property.

Chancery

The four-story chancery building, housing the ambassador's office, faces Avenue Gabriel and the gardens of the

Champs-Élysées The Avenue des Champs-Élysées (, ; ) is an avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, long and wide, running between the Place de la Concorde in the east and the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, where the Arc de Triomphe is l ...

; it is beside the

Hôtel de Crillon Hôtel de Crillon, A Rosewood Hotel () is a historic luxury hotel in Paris which opened in 1909 in a building dating to 1758. Located at the foot of the Champs-Élysées, the Crillon, along with the Hôtel de la Marine, is one of two identical s ...

. It was built in 1931, following the demolition of an existing building, the Hôtel Grimod de La Reynière. Designed by

Delano & Aldrich Delano & Aldrich was an American Beaux-Arts architectural firm based in New York City. Many of its clients were among the wealthiest and most powerful families in the state. Founded in 1903, the firm operated as a partnership until 1935, when Ald ...

– an American architectural firm based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, New York – along with French architect

Victor Laloux Victor Alexandre Frederic Laloux (15 November 1850 – 13 July 1937) was a French Beaux-Arts architect and teacher. Life Born in Tours, Laloux studied at the Paris École des Beaux-Arts ''atelier'' of Louis-Jules André, with his studies i ...

, the building has a

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loan word from the French (), which means ' frontage' or ' face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important aspect ...

that conforms with other buildings on the Place de la Concorde, as required by French law.

Hôtel de Talleyrand

The , also called the Talleyrand building, at 2 rue Saint-Florentin formerly housed the American Embassy Consular Services, Public and Cultural Affairs offices, several other government agencies, and the

George C. Marshall George Catlett Marshall Jr. (December 31, 1880 – October 16, 1959) was an American army officer and statesman. He rose through the United States Army to become Chief of Staff of the US Army under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry ...

Center. Most of these offices were subsequently moved to the chancery building. Constructed in 1769 as a private residence, the property was acquired in 1812 by

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

, who owned it until his death in 1838. It was then purchased by the banker

James Mayer de Rothschild James Mayer de Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild (born Jakob Mayer Rothschild; 15 May 1792 – 15 November 1868) was a German- French banker and the founder of the French branch of the Rothschild family. Early life James de Rothschild was bo ...

, whose family owned it for over a century, until 1950, when it was acquired by the U.S. government.

Ambassador's residence

The nearby property at 41

rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré The Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré () is a street located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. Relatively narrow and nondescript, especially in comparison to the nearby Avenue des Champs-Élysées, it is cited as being one of the most lux ...

, known as the

, was built by

Louis Visconti Louis Tullius Joachim Visconti (Rome February 11, 1791 – December 29, 1853) was an Italian-born French architect and designer. Life Son of the Italian archaeologist and art historian Ennio Quirino Visconti, Visconti designed many Par ...

for the

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

–born

Baroness Micaela Almonester de Pontalba Micaela Leonarda Antonia de Almonester Rojas y de la Ronde, Baroness de Pontalba (November 6, 1795"Jackson Square". ''Louisiana Historical Quarterly''. Henry Renshaw.- April 20, 1874) was a wealthy New Orleans-born Creole aristocrat, businesswoma ...

between 1842 and 1855.

Edmond James de Rothschild Baron Abraham Edmond Benjamin James de Rothschild (Hebrew: הברון אברהם אדמונד בנימין ג'יימס רוטשילד - ''HaBaron Avraham Edmond Binyamin Ya'akov Rotshield''; 19 August 1845 – 2 November 1934) was a French memb ...

acquired the building in 1876. His estate sold it in 1948 to the U.S. government, and today it is the residence of the U.S. Ambassador to France.

U.S. representatives in France

As of 18 December 2017, sixty-six people had represented, in France, the interests of the United States (or individual states prior to the 1789 ratification of the

U.S. Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the nation ...

) as

envoy Envoy or Envoys may refer to: Diplomacy * Diplomacy, in general * Envoy (title) * Special envoy, a type of diplomatic rank Brands *Airspeed Envoy, a 1930s British light transport aircraft *Envoy (automobile), an automobile brand used to sell Br ...

minister plenipotentiary An envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, usually known as a minister, was a diplomatic head of mission who was ranked below ambassador. A diplomatic mission headed by an envoy was known as a legation rather than an embassy. Under the ...

, minister, ambassador or '' chargé d'affaires''.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Buildings and structures in the 8th arrondissement of Paris

France–United States relations