Miss Manor
In the dispute over a planned mayoral mansion, everyone was talking—Foxhall residents, Park Service officials, D.C. councilmembers. Everyone, that is, except for the woman who was paying for it.
Cover Story
Three years ago, Betty Brown Casey acquired a Foxhall property that was impressive even by Foxhall standards. Across the street from the German Embassy compound and bounded on two sides by federal parkland, the rolling plot had a majestic past. Here, cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post had entertained Washington’s elite. Piebald deer, rare creatures with mottled white coats, gamboled around knolls, down swales, and in wooded brush.
Casey bought the secluded 16.5-acre spread from a Qatari royal for about $16.5 million in order to build an official residence for the D.C. mayor and his successors in office.
The leader of the nation’s capital, she thought, deserved better digs than, say, the apartment Mayor Anthony A. Williams rented in Foggy Bottom. Nowhere did the District have spaces quite regal enough for the mayor’s ceremonial functions. Reception halls for dignitaries from around the globe. A room for state dinners. A grand terrace for summer soirees. The grounds of the estate were nearly as expansive as those at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.—but with better views.
She intended to call the new house she would build there the Casey Mansion, a name that would memorialize her late husband, Eugene Casey, a native Washingtonian. Everything else would monumentalize her own cultivated taste.
A fan of early Americana, the Maryland philanthropist favored a simple, classic look for the mansion. She started decorating.... Continued 
Issue of Feb. 13 - 19, 2004
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