The Duncan was built in 1905-06 on a double lot in what was perhaps Washington’s most elite residential neighborhood at the time. Its projected cost of $55,000 was considerable at the time. Most high-end luxury row houses, including nearby homes on Q Street, cost under $9,000 to build, with middle-class homes costing less than half that.

The first owner, William Duncan McKim, was a retired medical doctor and accomplished amateur organist. The home was built with a grand music room on the south side, measuring 61 by 23 feet, with 45-foot ceilings and a near-full-height stained glass window. In this room, McKim commissioned the largest and perhaps finest privately owned pipe organ in the city, which remained in place in the building until 2004. At the beginning of the renovation of the Duncan, the organ was carefully removed by professional organ builders and donated to the Universalist National Memorial Church, located around the corner at 1810 16th Street, NW. The instrument is being painstakingly restored and will be re-installed at its new home for the public to enjoy for the first time in its century-long history.

The building was designed by the firm of Hornblower and Marshall, whose credits include the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum, the Duncan Phillips House, and countless private residential mansions. The builder was William Lipscomb, whose firm built some of the city’s most glorious turn-of-the-century mansions, including the Meridian House, 1630 Crescent Pl NW, the Totten House, 2801 16th St NW & currently owned by the Spanish Embassy, the Pope House, 2320 S St NW & now the Textile Museum, the Congressional Club, 2001 New Hampshire Ave NW, and the Lawrence House, 2221 Kalorama Rd NW & now the French Embassy