The Clara Barton House and its grounds comprise the approximately nine-acre Clara Barton National Historic Site, which together with the adjacent Glen Echo Park of the George Washington Memorial Parkway makes up a contiguous cultural landscape of twenty-two acres in Montgomery County, MD.

The Clara Barton House was constructed adjacent to the grounds of the Chautauqua Assembly at Glen Echo, Maryland in 1891. The building was the temporary residence of Clara Barton in 1891 but functioned primarily as a Red Cross warehouse from 1891 to 1897. The structure, which originally had a stone façade, was remodeled by Clara Barton in 1897 as her home, where she lived with her associate, Dr. Julian Hubbell, and other volunteers until her death on April 12, 1912, at the age of 90. Barton’s home also served as the national headquarters of the American Red Cross (of which she was President) from 1897 to 1904. The Clara Barton National Historic Site was listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark on January 12, 1965.

Mills + Schnoering Architects, LLC (M+Sa) is working with the National Park Service to rehabilitate the Clara Barton National Historic Site for educational programming that will communicate the significance of Clara Barton’s social and humanitarian contributions. The project began with completion of a scoping document to determine the range of services required for the rehabilitation of the house and landscape. The M+Sa team evaluated the exterior and interior of the Clara Barton House, including structural and building systems, as well as the site and landscape in Schematic Design. A Cultural Landscape Report was completed as part of the project by Heritage Landscapes, LLC. The design of the rehabilitation is in progress and includes structural upgrades; accessibility and code improvements; new mechanical and electrical systems; and building repair and finish restoration.