Thereupon Henry Clay, who was then a Member of the House of Representatives and subsequently Secretary of State in the Cabinet of John Quincy Adams, occupied the Decatur House. After the Civil War the house was bought by Gen. Edward H. Beale, a friend of General Grant. It was inherited by Truxton Beale, who resided there many years. OTHER HISTORICAL HOUSES Other houses adjacent to Lafayette Square and the White House grounds which became historically important were: The Cameron House, adjacent to the Dolly Madison House, was built in 1828 by Benjamin Ogle Tayloe. Later it was altered somewhat to suit the fine taste of Mrs. Cameron, wife of James Donald Cameron, who served as a Senator from the State of Pennsylvania from 1877 to 1897. The Cameron House to-day is occupied by the Cosmos Club, which, as has been stated, also occupies the Dolly Madison House. The beautiful gardens surrounding it are a source of much pleasure. The Van Ness Mansion formerly stood on the site now occupied by the Pan American Building, near Seventeenth Street and Constitution Avenue. [Illustration: VAN NESS MANSION] The Rodgers House was occupied by Secretary of State Seward at the time he and his son were nearly fatally stabbed on the night President Lincoln was assassinated. In 1895 the house was torn down to make way for an opera house, called the Lafayette Square Opera House, and later the Belasco Theater. John Hay, Secretary of State under Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt, lived at Sixteenth and H Streets. The home of George Bancroft was at No. 1623 H Street. Here he completed his History of the United States. [Illustration: LOCK OF THE OLD CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL, GEORGETOWN] The historian Henry Adams, grandson of President John Quincy Adams, lived at 1605 H Street. Lord Ashburton lived in the large square house next to the old Arlington Hotel, at H Street and Vermont Avenue. Charles Sumner also lived near by. The Corcoran House stood at the corner of H Street and Connecticut Avenue, where now stands the Chamber of Commerce of the United States. In that house Daniel Webster lived while Secretary of State under Presidents William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor. The original Corcoran Gallery of Art Building stands at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Seventeenth Street. No. 22 Jackson Place, now the home of the Women’s City Club, was the house of President Polk’s Secretary of War, William L. Marcy. The house was occupied by President and Mrs. Roosevelt for a few months while the White House was being restored in 1901. GEORGETOWN