George Oakley Totten

Biography

George Oakley Totten trained as an architect and, arriving in Washington, D.C., in the 1870s he brought an elegant Beaux-Arts sensibility to the capital's streets. Over the decades he designed embassies, residences, and public buildings that gave Embassy Row and the surrounding neighborhoods their dignified character.

He remained a steadfast advocate for well-crafted architecture, helping to guide the capital's growth with a sense of monumentality and grace; he passed in 1923, leaving a skyline that still bears his imprint.