"Old Baptistry"

The Herb Cottage was built as the temporary baptistry of Washington National Cathedral. The first Bishop of Washington, Henry Yates Satterlee, commissioned this building from architect T. Henry Randall (1862-1905). It was begun in 1903 and completed in the spring of 1904, several years before the Cathedral itself was begun (in 1907). The entrance to the building was originally through its west door facing Wisconsin Avenue, the major point of access to the Cathedral grounds.

As the construction of the Cathedral progressed, baptism services were conducted in the Cathedral's chapels, and the west aisle of the South Transept was set aside as the Cathedral's baptistry in the 1950s. By 1934 a portion of the "Old Baptistry" was being used as a small shop for plants and seeds under the auspices of the All Hallows Guild. By 1958, this building was in full use as the Herb Cottage, making gifts available to pilgrims and visitors to Washington National Cathedral.

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5. Site of Red Top

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