Built in 1888, Washington, D.C.’s “Sherman House,” is home today to the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the United States. The spacious, brick, Richardsonian-style house has had some notable tenants, but none more so than U.S. Vice President James S. Sherman, the 27th Vice President of the United States. Sherman served as President William Howard Taft’s vice president and remains the only vice president ever to have died in office.
The Sherman House features a massive hip roof, prominent chimneys and a distinctive round corner tower. The house was designed and built by Charles and Samuel Edmonston for Susan Shields, the widow of a wealthy newspaper publisher. The Edmonston’s familiar design style is reflected in many of the Dupont Circle neighborhood’s most enduring apartments and homes.
To honor the Sherman tradition of open-door hospitality, diplomats from Kazakhstan go to great lengths welcome and entertain official visitors as well as the general public, who are always welcome to tour the inside of the house. Not only is the exterior of the Embassy wonderful, but the inside is well-appointed with rich, dark woodwork, high ceilings and ornate staircases. The Embassy is much like the country itself in that it welcomes anyone through its door and visitors can view the Kazakh artwork, jewelry, statues, and cultural attire on display inside, including a room designed to resemble the interior of a traditional Kazakh yurt, or nomadic tent.
The Sherman House is a small slice of American history. Since its construction, the house has served as a place of fellowship, dialogue and the open exchange of ideas. Appropriately, Kazakhstan’s modern day diplomats have embraced Sherman’s open-door policy too and used it to strengthen relations between Kazakhstan and the United States.