Kalorama Walking Tour

Joel Barlow named the estate he purchased in 1807 Kalorama for the expansive views to be had from its place overlooking today’s Rock Creek Park. No more exquisitely beautiful enclave exists in America’s capital. Kalorama has always been a prime residential area, its glory the urban mansions located on the high ground between Massachusetts and Connecticut Avenues. We’ll start by ascending the “Spanish Steps” to reach the heights where Washington’s diplomatic community is evident everywhere you look, many of the original single family homes now occupied by ambassadors or embassy offices. Former police and fire call boxes punctuate the neighborhood as imaginative works of public art as does a brightly colored panda. See if you can identify the oldest house in the District and discover the Woodrow Wilson House. Wilson was the only U.S. president to retire in D.C. and chose Kalorama as his place of residence. In January 2017, however, another former U.S. president followed suit: Barack Obama and his family moved from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to a Kalorama home overlooking Rock Creek Park.