Eleanor ("Cissy") Patterson: The First Female Newspaper Titan (15 Dupont Circle)
The white marble mansion at number 15 Dupont Circle is the last of the grand mansions that once stood immediately around Dupont Circle. It is probably best known now as the home of newspaper heiress and titan Eleanor Josephine Medill (“Cissy”) Patterson.
Ten years after Levi Leiter had finished building his palatial house on New Hampshire Avenue, fellow Chicagoans Robert and Elinor “Nellie” Patterson would follow their lead and take the first steps in moving to and and joining the ranks of Washington high society.
Soon after the Pattersons arrived in Washington, they built the gleaming, white marble, Beaux Arts–style mansion on Dupont Circle. Completed in 1903, the mansion was designed by Stanford White, name partner in the prominent New York architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White for Cissy's mother, Elinor “Nellie” (Medill) Patterson of Chicago. It is one of two extant buildings designed by White in Washington. The other buildi…
