Historic Places
Historic Places #5
16th Arrondissement
43-47 rue d'Auteuil
Hôtel Antier
John Adams' residence from 1784 to 1785.
John Adams lived here with his wife and his two grown children for almost a year between September 1784 and August 1785. In Paris, Adams replaced Silas Deane to negotiate for the United States under the Treaties of Friendship and Commerce which had been signed in February 1778. In February 1780, he was back once again to work with Benjamin Franklin and John Jay on the treaty of peace and commerce with England. With Jay and Franklin, he negotiated a separate peace with the British in November 1782. In 1785, he became the first Ambassador to the Court of King James and left Paris for London. He asked to return to the United States in 1788.
95, rue de Chaillot
The Legation offices were established here, but the premises were vacated in 1881. The lease was retained, however, and the premises were sublet until 1886. The premises were not good: they were reached by two flights of stairs and were situated over a grocery on one side and a laundry on the other.
3, Place des Etats-Unis
This was the residence of Minister Morton, but it seems also to have been the offices of the Legation, for when he reached Paris in the late summer of 1881 he found the whole Legation staff ready to move from 95, rue de Chaillot to new quarters in a nicer neighbourhood. It was not to soon, for, as he reported, the old accomodation was deficient. One serious drawback existed in connection with the new premises: its name. For some reasons or other which it was difficult to make the French understand, the mention of the Place de la Bitche excited mingled merriment and derision among Morton's compatriots in Paris. Even the State Department, when it read the name at the head of the Minister's notepaper, was shocked. It was evident that something should be done. Morton called on M. Herold, the Prefect of the Seine, and explained the difficulty and the name was changed to the Place des Etats-Unis - a graceful comliment to a sister Republic. The Place de la Bitche was named after a small town near the Belgian border which had put up a heroic resistance to the invading armies during the Franco-Prussian war.
75, avenue Foch
Known as l'Avenue de l'Impératrice, and then, following World War I, to Avenue Foch, it was later changed to the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne. Here was installed the Legation under E. B. Washburne, who remained in Paris during the siege and the Commune; the German Government had confided to him the interests of the Germans living in Paris, and he secured their departure. This house was invaded by the Communards, but was successfully preserved against fire. In September 1870, after the gates of Paris were closed during the Franco-Prussian war, Washburn left the Avenue Montaigne, where he had been lodging, and returned to this home. The evacuation of the Germans from Paris was followed by the insurrection of March 18, 1871. On that day the Commune was proclaimed and the regular Government of France was driven out and established itself at Versailles. Washburne followed the Government. Versailles being overcrowded, he was only able to hire a small room in a side street, at number 13, rue Mademoiselle. For the first time since the foundation of the American Government was, the Minister of the United States was obliged to work outside of Paris.
Place d'Iéna
Statue of George Washington
The statue of George Washington by the American sculptor Daniel Chester French was inaugurated July 3, 1900. It is a bronze statue of Washington on horseback. It was given by a committee of American women. The text of the statue reads as follows : "gift of the women of the United States of America in memory of the brotherly help given by France to their fathers in the fight for Independence."
6, rue de Presbourg
It was inhabited from 1863 to 1864 by Minister Dayton, and from 1867 to 1868 by General John A. Dix. Minister.
Rue Raynouard / rue Singer
Hôtel de Valentinois
Benjamin Franklin's residence from 1777 to 1785.
The site of Benjamin Franklin's home for nearly ten years. When Franklin arrived in Paris in 1777, he was invited to stay in the Hôtel de Valentinois by Le Ray de Chaumont, an international merchant. There he worked with the American mission to the Court of France, Arthur Lee, Silas Deane and later John Adams and John Jay. It was here, too, that he conducted experiments on electricity. The most brilliant minds came to Passy to visit him. He was invited by the King to Versailles and met Voltaire at the Académie des Sciences. On November 20, 1783, he witnessed the first balloon ascension with the Marquis d'Arlande and Pilâtre de Rozier. He returned to America in 1785.
Jardins du Trocadéro
Statue of Amiral de Grasse
This statue by the sculptor Paul Landowski, standing in the gardens of the Trocadéro in memory of De Grasse, who commanded the naval blockade at Yorktown, was presented to the city by M. Kingsley Macomber, an American citizen. It was inaugurated in 1931.