
Tudor Place was built by Martha Washington's granddaughter, Martha Custis Peter, and her husband, Thomas Peter, son of a Martha Peter successful Scottish tobacco merchant. In 1805, Thomas Peter purchased the land comprising a city lot in Georgetown Heights with an $8,000 legacy from Martha Custis Peter's step-grandfather, George Washington. The Peters asked Dr. William Thornton, architect of the U.S. Capitol, to design the stately neoclassical house with its circular domed portico and expansive gardens. Completed in 1816, Tudor Place remained under the ownership of six succeeding generations of the Peter family until 1983.