Home to Nine ROC Ambassadors, A National Historic Site, and A Symbol of Friendship with the United States

Situated atop a hill on a parcel of land once owned by a one-legged Revolutionary War general is a 26-room mansion that served as the official residence of nine ambassadors from the Republic of China (ROC) between 1937 and 1978 and which still belongs to the ROC government in Taiwan.

1888-1937

The mansion and the 18.1 acres of land it lies on comprise the historic Twin Oaks estate. Over the last six decades, countless dignitaries and friends have met with ROC ambassadors and representatives at Twin Oaks to chart the course of friendship and cooperation between the two countries through good times and bad.

Considered the largest privately owned estate in Washington, D.C., Twin Oaks, which is nearly the size of the White House compound, was placed on the National Register for Historic Sites on Feb. 5, 1986 in recognition of its storied past and architectural significance.

The land upon which Twin Oaks rests belonged originally to Uriah Forrest, an American general in the Revolutionary War, a member of the first Continental Congress, and one of Maryland's first delegates to the U.S. Congress. In 1888, his descendent, Mrs. Osceola Green, sold the property to Mr. Gardiner Green Hubbard, scion of a prominent Boston family, progressive public servant, founder and first president of the National Geographic Society.

Mr. Hubbard then commissioned one of America's leading architects at the time, the Paris-trained Richard Allen to build a summer retreat for the Hubbard family, which was then living on Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. For $30,000 dollars, Mr. Allen designed and constructed a 26-room house in the early Colonial (Georgian) Revival style and modeled after a New England frame summer house. In fact, Twin Oaks is the only remaining example of that style in the District of Columbia.

In the 1930s, the Hubbard family began renting the home to a succession of prominent people including Assistant Secretary of the Navy David S. Ingalls and Solictor General J. Crawford Biggs. On June 8, 1937, the family rented the house to the new ambassador from the Republic of China, Thomas C. T. Wang, who, as the representative of the Chiang Kai-shek government in Nanking, presented his credentials to President Franklin Roosevelt the very next day. According to one press report at the time, Ambassador Wang had taken one look at the cramped ROC embassy on 19th and P Street and decided to rent a home in Cleveland Park on a grassy hill where he could have some elbow room for his wife and two young daughters in a "big, old, yellow frame house on the hill."

1937-1978

Over the next decade, the Hubbards continued to rent Twin Oaks to Ambassador Wang and his successors: Hu Shih (a prominent intellectual and cultural figure considered a leader of the May Fourth movement, modern China's renaissance) and Wei Tao-ming (who is famous for signing a treaty at the State Department, doing away with extraterritorial privileges the U.S. enjoyed in China for nearly 100 years). In 1947, the Hubbard family sold Twin Oaks for $450,000 to the Republic of China represented by Ambassador Wellington Koo who had spoken eloquently on behalf of China at the Paris Peace Conference following World War I.

The estate has remained in the possession of the ROC even after the ROC government moved to Taiwan since 1949 except for a four-year hiatus caused by President Jimmy Carter's announcement on Dec. 15, 1978, that the United States would switch diplomatic relations from the ROC to the People's Republic of China (PRC) on Jan. 1, 1979.

From 1937 to 1978, a total of nine ROC ambassadors lived at Twin Oaks. There, the ambassadors entertained senior members of the U.S. government, U.S. senators and representatives (including future president Gerald Ford), and other members of the Diplomatic Corps in Washington, D.C., starting a tradition of hospitality and friendship at Twin Oaks that continues to this day.

Most U.S. secretaries of state since 1937, including such notables as John F. Dulles, Dean Rusk, George Schultz, and even Colin Powell, have at some point in their careers dined at Twin Oaks in either an official or a private capacity. It is, therefore, not surprising that several important agreements (including some parts of the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty) have been negotiated at the estate.

1979-1982

Perhaps the most interesting story of all involves the sale of Twin Oaks on Dec. 22, 1978 to an American civic organization. Just seven days earlier, President Carter had unexpectedly announced that the United States would, on Jan. 1, shift diplomatic recognition from the ROC government on Taiwan to the PRC.

Fearing that the PRC would claim ownership of all its assets in the United States, the government in Taiwan asked former Roosevelt "whiz kid" and staunch supporter of Taiwan, Thomas G. Corcoran Sr., aged 78, to help arrange for the sale of the Twin Oaks estate to a private American group, the Friends of Free China Association, co-chaired by Senator Barry Goldwater.

Later, with help of supporters such as Senator Goldwater, the passage of the Taiwan Relations Act rendered the transaction unnecessary. Under the terms of the act, which was passed by the U.S. Congress in April 1979, recognition of the People's Republic of China "shall not affect in any way the ownership of or other rights or interests in properties, tangible and intangible, and other things of value, owned or held on or prior to December 31, 1978, or thereafter acquired or earned by the government authorities on Taiwan."

Later, the ROC government in Taiwan bought the Twin Oaks estate back from the Friends of Free China, and that is why to this very day Twin Oaks remains out of the grasp of the PRC.

1983-Present

In 1983, Dr. Fredrick F. Chien came to Washington as the representative of the Coordination Council for North American Affairs (the unofficial instrumentality set up to represent the interests of the people of Taiwan in the United States and later renamed the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office).

By then the Twin Oaks mansion was in need of extensive repair. With the approval of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs back in Taipei, Representative Chien and his wife, Julie, supervised the repair of the mansion's structural weaknesses, the repainting of its exterior, and the restoration of the oak woodwork throughout its interior.

For the two parlors and dining room on the first floor, Representative and Mrs. Chien ordered rosewood furniture and Chinese rugs. They also commissioned Chinese paintings for all the rooms, including a work apiece from the contemporary painters Chiang Chao-shen, former deputy director of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, and Au Ho-nien, who is well known for his landscapes in the style of the Ling Nan school of Chinese painting.

In the adjoining sitting room hangs the most prized possession in the Twin Oaks collection, a painting that the Kuang Hsu emperor of the Ch'ing dynasty (1875-1908) gave to his mother, the Empress Dowager, on her birthday. The painting depicts peaches and other Chinese symbols for longevity and good fortune. Nearby is a glass-faced curio cabinet filled with many rare and valuable Chinese objects d'art collected by imperial Ch'ing envoys and ROC ambassadors in the United States.

The wrap-around patio along the south side of the house was partially enclosed after the ROC bought Twin Oaks. Today, the now fully enclosed porch is a long, sun-lit room that seats up to 100 guests for official dinners or other important functions.

On the southern side of the mansion is now a large stand of more than 100 plum trees planted during Representative Mou-shih Ding's stay in Washington, D.C. (The plum blossom is the national flower of the Republic of China.) In early April, the dark pink plum blossoms provide a dramatic backdrop for the house. The north side of the Twin Oaks property is lightly forested with large white oaks. A garden has been planted in front of the main door to the house.

Today, as in times past, visitors to Twin Oaks appreciate the estate's peony gardens, its Georgian Revival architecture, and its priceless Ch'ing dynasty antiques. But more importantly, they enjoy each other's company, share their thoughts, and form the kinds of lasting friendships that have bound the two countries together for decades.

Twin Oaks is open to the public on special occasions throughout the year.