19th-century Early history In 1795, real estate developer and merchant Thomas Clarke built a brick house on
Bridge Street, present-day
M Street NW, in
Georgetown, a separate municipality of
Washington, D.C., at the time. The home was perched on a slope beside the
Potomac River. It was three-and-a-half stories tall and it faced the river; the façade was two-and-a-half stories.
Francis Scott Key, a lawyer born in
Frederick, Maryland, moved to Georgetown in 1805 with his wife, Mary Taylor Lloyd, when he began working for the firm of his wealthy uncle, Philip Barton Key I. In late 1805, the Keys moved into the house at 3518 Bridge Street. The couple raised their eleven children while living in the house. In addition to his legal work, Key participated in civil affairs and was heavily involved with
St. John's Episcopal Church's activities. While being detained on a British ship, the attack on Baltimore began on September 12. After Key watched
Fort McHenry and its
large American flag be bombarded, he wrote
Defence of Fort McHenry, a poem about Britain's unsuccessful attack. Two days later, Key penned the remaining four
stanzas in a Baltimore pub. The poem became incredibly popular and was made into a song, renamed
The Star-Spangled Banner, which later became the national anthem of the United States.
Key's life after the war was built in 1830. After the war concluded, Key continued to practice law. The Key family and the people they enslaved left Georgetown in 1830 when the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (C&O Canal) and its boat traffic opened directly behind their house. They moved to
Judiciary Square, so that Key could be closer to the court buildings, but he did keep an office in a wing of the Bridge Street house until 1843.
Mid-to-late 19th-century After the opening of the canal, the neighborhood around the house became an industrial area. "THE KEY MANSION" was painted in large black letters on the façade, in an attempt to draw in visitors who would shop at the store. The association tried to recreate the successful saving of the
Betsy Ross House in
Philadelphia. Due to its location in an undesirable area and the lack of furniture or anything else related to Key, the museum saw few visitors. It only remained open for a few years before Taggart's death in 1912. His heirs drastically altered the appearance of the Key House, including removing the
gable roof, removing the façade and installing glass-plate windows, demolishing the one-story adjoining building that Key used as office space and replacing it with a two-story commercial property, and removing the chimneys. In 1931, the
National Park Service (NPS) purchased land and properties on the south side of M Street that were near the Key Bridge. The plan was to demolish the site's structures to create Palisades Park, but after locals argued to save the Key House, government officials assured citizens the house would remain and be restored. During the
Great Depression, raising funds to restore the house did not meet the $25,000 goal ().
Ulysses S. Grant III, who served as director of the Office of Public Buildings and Public Parks of the National Capital, led the unsuccessful fundraising effort. Beginning in 1935, there were plans to dismantle the house and move the original building materials elsewhere. This idea was opposed by a collection of local officials and citizens, including Key's great-grandson, Francis Scott Key-Smith. There had been so many radical changes to the Key House that it was considered wasteful and unnecessary to save. Key-Smith said, "I do not believe, taking the proper definition of the word 'restore', the building can be restored." The NPS shared this idea with members of the public, some of whom supported it, including the Progressive Citizens Association of Georgetown and the Georgetown Citizens Association.
Final years . Ultimately, the
National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) approved city plans to build a ramp from the
Whitehurst Freeway to the Key Bridge. The federal government wanted a quick way for drivers to exit the city during
World War II and a faster way to reach
The Pentagon, and the house stood in the way of doing that. Speaking on the idea of what to do with the house, Interior Secretary
Harold L. Ickes said "In view of the importance of the proposed highway project and the fact that approximately 50% of the structure has been altered and is not original, it is recommended that the house be demolished and that an appropriate marker be placed on or near the site." The plan was rejected, and as a compromise, the CHS asked for the Key House to be moved to an empty lot on the east side of the bridge. In 1948,
Congress approved $65,000 () in funding to have the house dismantled and moved to a new location, but this was vetoed by President
Harry S. Truman after the
Bureau of the Budget announced it would be too costly to rebuild and maintain a replica. The building parts and brick foundation were left at the new location, and without funding approved for further work to be done, the materials remained untouched. It's unclear who moved or picked up the dismantled pieces, but over time, the pile grew smaller until there was nothing left. It's believed some of the parts were used when restoring the nearby
Old Stone House, and
Quality Hill allegedly incorporates the Key House doorway. A planned memorial plaque or flagpole was to be installed by the NPS at the original site, but this did not occur. In 1986, Congress authorized that the memorial should be built by the group. During the next few years, over $500,000 was raised, but the group needed an additional $800,000 in 1990 to complete the project. The plan was to overhaul the site's landscaping, which included planting 12,000 lilies, in addition to new irrigation, lighting, and a
pergola. ==Design==