60-room Gilded Age mansion on Embassy Row, built 1901-1903 for Irish mining magnate Thomas F. Walsh and his daughter Evalyn — owner of the cursed Hope Diamond — and now the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia. Working diplomatic mission — exterior viewing from Massachusetts Avenue only.
2020 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Active diplomatic mission of Indonesia. Exterior viewing is free from Massachusetts Avenue; interior visits are by Embassy invitation only.
Access
Limited Access
Historic mansion converted to working embassy; tightly restricted access
Equipment
No Photos
Est. 1903 · Most Expensive Private Residence in DC at Completion (1903) · Home of Hope Diamond Owner Evalyn Walsh McLean · Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia Since 1952 · Embassy Row Anchor Building
Thomas F. Walsh emigrated from Ireland to the United States in 1869 and built his fortune at the Camp Bird Mine, a gold-and-silver discovery in Ouray County, Colorado. In 1898 he relocated his family to Washington, D.C. He commissioned a Massachusetts Avenue mansion that was begun in 1901 and completed in 1903 at a reported construction cost of approximately $835,000 — the most expensive private residence in the city at the time. The 60-room building included a theater, ballroom, French salon, and grand staircase, with about $2 million in furnishings.
Walsh's daughter Evalyn married Edward Beale 'Ned' McLean in 1908. In 1911 the couple acquired the 45.52-carat Hope Diamond from Pierre Cartier — Cartier negotiated the sale at the Walsh Mansion itself — for $180,000. The stone's centuries-old curse legend traveled with the purchase, and Evalyn became its most famous owner.
Evalyn Walsh McLean died at the mansion in 1947. On December 19, 1951, Indonesia's first ambassador to the United States, Dr. Ali Sastroamidjojo, agreed to purchase the building on behalf of the Government of Indonesia for $335,000. The sale was completed in 1952. The mansion has served as the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia continuously since — making it both a working diplomatic mission and a publicly-recognized Gilded Age architectural landmark on Embassy Row.
Sources
According to the Wikipedia entry on reportedly haunted locations in Washington, D.C., and to DC Preservation's historic-sites page, embassy staff at the Walsh-McLean House have reported seeing the apparition of Evalyn Walsh McLean gliding down the mansion's grand central staircase. Evalyn was the building's longest-resident occupant and died here in 1947; the staircase was a feature of the home's signature theatrical entry.
A second, separable report describes the apparition of an unidentified naked woman elsewhere on the property — a more unusual claim that is not anchored to a named historical figure.
The haunting tradition is reinforced by the long-standing curse legend of the Hope Diamond, which Evalyn purchased from Pierre Cartier in 1911 for $180,000. Family tragedies that followed (the deaths of her son Vinson in a 1919 auto accident, her daughter Emily, and ultimately Evalyn herself) became attached to the curse narrative. Because the building is a working diplomatic mission, paranormal accounts come from embassy staff rather than from organized investigators.
This venue is a working embassy and not open to the public — appreciate from the public sidewalk on Massachusetts Avenue only.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
View the 60-room Gilded Age Walsh-McLean Mansion from Massachusetts Avenue, where it has anchored Embassy Row since 1903. The DC Historic Sites and Embassy of Indonesia pages document the building's architectural significance. Interior access is restricted as a working diplomatic mission.
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