Benjamin "Ogle" Tayloe was an American businessman, bon vivant, diplomat, scion of colonial tidewater gentry, and influential political activist in Washington, D.C. during the first half of the 19th century. Although he never held elective office, he was a prominent Whig and influential in presidential electoral politics in the 1840s and 1850s. His home, the Tayloe House, became a salon for politically powerful people in the federal government and socially influential individuals in the United States and abroad. Tayloe was also a party in the important 1869 contract law case, Willard v. Tayloe, 75 U.S. 557.
Bust of Benjamin Ogle Tayloe by Powers
Benjamin Ogle Tayloe of Washington DC
The Benjamin Ogle Tayloe House in 1886.
"Uncle" Jim Lawson, an African American born into slavery and enslaved by Benjamin Ogle Tayloe. He was moved from Maryland to the Windsor plantation in Alabama around 1845. This photo depicts him at age 94 in 1915, still working on the Tayloe estate.
Benjamin Ogle Tayloe House
The Benjamin Ogle Tayloe House is a Federal-style house located at 21 Madison Place NW in Washington, D.C., in the United States. The house is on the northeast corner of Madison Place NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, directly across the street from the White House and the Treasury Building. Built in 1828 by Benjamin Ogle Tayloe, son of Colonel John Tayloe III, the house became a salon for politically powerful people in the federal government.
Benjamin Ogle Tayloe House in 2022
Front view
Plaque
The Tayloe House in 1886, the year before Sen. Don Cameron purchased it