The Hiram W. Johnson House is located on Capitol Hill, occupying a parcel bounded on the north by Constitution Avenue and the south by Maryland Avenue. It is just north of the United States Supreme Court and south of the Hart Senate Office Building, and is oriented facing south toward Maryland Avenue. It is a 2+1⁄2-story brick building (painted white), with a raised basement and a mansard roof providing a full third floor. Its main facade is five bays wide, with a center entrance accessed via side-facing stairs. The entrance surround has pilasters rising to a bracketed segmental-arch pediment. First-floor windows are elongated, and topped by headers decorated with swags. Second-floor windows are topped by splayed lintels with keystones, and have shallow wrought iron balconies.[3]
Johnson was a politician from California, and a leading voice of progressivism and reform in the Republican Party for many years. He served as Governor of California, implementing a sweeping progressive agenda, and was a founder of the Progressive Party that contested the 1912 election with Johnson as its vice presidential candidate. In the 1930s Johnson supported the Democratic New Deal programs. He was also a maverick on foreign policy, steadfastly taking isolationist positions before and after both world wars.[3]
^ ab"Hiram W. Johnson House". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on 2011-06-06. Retrieved 2008-05-13.