It will not be an elegant house, as some, but it will well serve the purposes that we believe are necessary.
Clara Barton moved into her Glen Echo home February 28, 1897. Vacating the property rented in Washington, D.C. since 1892, at 17th & F Streets NW, required packing and transporting over 30 wagon loads of supplies. As was her habit since founding the American Red Cross from her residence in Dansville, New York, Clara Barton's home in Glen Echo, Maryland would also house the American Red Cross.
This house was built for Miss Barton in 1891 by Edward and Edwin Baltzley as part of their Glen Echo development. Their offer of land and a structure presented Miss Barton with an excellent opportunity to plan a building to meet the needs of her organization. The design closely followed hotel buildings built by the American Red Cross following the 1889 flood in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
Clara Barton initially used her Glen Echo building as a warehouse for disaster relief supplies. In 1897, she moved in and remodeled the structure for use as a residence and headquarters for the America Red Cross.
Until she resigned as president of the American Red Cross in 1904, Clara Barton directed the organization from this office. Miss Barton depended upon a constantly changing staff of volunteers to assist her with the sometimes overwhelming administrative duties associated with the relief organization.
Miss Barton's diaries indicate that the offices were well supplied. They contained several typewriters, a telephone, and a graphophone. A diary entry for November 23, 1898, described a typical day:
Clara Barton published several American Red Cross reports and books.The Red Cross, In Peace and War provided a comprehensive history of the American Red Cross from its beginning through the relief campaigns of the Spanish-American War. The American Red Cross depended upon donations to provide for the victims of natural disasters and war. Clara Barton used her publications describing the work of the relatively new organization to gain public acceptance and support.
The early American Red Cross accepted donations of money and supplies. Miss Barton continued to use the Glen Echo building as a Red Cross warehouse after she moved in. Closets were used throughout the house to store disaster relief supplies. The closets built into the main hallway were designed to resemble paneled walls and concealed supplies that included blankets, bedding, medical supplies, bandages, canned goods, clothing, hammers, nails, rakes, hoes, seeds and various other emergency supplies.
The Glen Echo headquarters also served as living quarters for an assortment of volunteers and staff members. Miss Barton encouraged her staff to live here, and bedrooms were arranged and furnished as necessary, depending upon how many people were at Glen Echo. Staff members lived either in fully furnished bedrooms or in storage rooms containing "folding beds" or cots.
Glen Echo ceased functioning as headquarters for the American Red Cross in 1904 when Miss Barton resigned as president of the organization. She continued to live here until her death at age 90. She died of double pneumonia in her bedroom on April 12, 1912.
In nearly everything she did, Clara Barton saw little distinction between her public and private lives. In 1891, when the Baltzley brothers offered her a home, Miss Barton accepted their offer and placed the needs of the American Red Cross first.
The Red Cross windows, installed during the 1897 remodeling, symbolize Clara Barton's resolve to dedicate her life and her home to the service of the Red Cross. In The Life of Clara Barton,William E. Barton wrote:
Clara Barton National Historic Site was established as a unit of the National Park Service in 1975. The first National Historic Site dedicated to the accomplishments of a woman, it preserves the early history of the American Red Cross and the last home of its founder. Clara Barton spent the last 15 years of her life in her Glen Echo home. At times too busy to enjoy the serenity of the surroundings of her "country home", she did occasionally have time to enjoy her life in Glen Echo, writing in 1906:
The National Park Service has restored eleven rooms, including the Red Cross offices, parlors and Miss Barton's bedroom. Visitors to Clara Barton National Historic Site can gain a sense of how Miss Barton lived and worked surrounded by all that went into her life's work. Visitors to the site are led through the three levels on a guided tour emphasizing Miss Barton's use of her unusual home, and come to appreciate the site in the same way visitors did in Clara Barton's lifetime.
I often think of your nice warm house, so
full of your own individuality.
The crime of being commonplace can never be laid to your door --
and your home is just as it should be, unlike anybody's else.