Philip Johnson and David Whitney

Philip Johnson’s Glass House (New Canaan, Connecticut)

Architect Philip Johnson and art curator David Whitney built the site and its collection during a period when the artistic contributions of gay men were increasingly acknowledged.

The two met when Whitney (then a student at the Rhode Island School of Design) attended a lecture by Johnson at Brown University. Afterwards, he approached the architect and asked for a tour of the Glass House. Their relationship began shortly thereafter, and Whitney moved in with Johnson upon graduating from college.

Whitney’s influence on Johnson is seen throughout The Glass House in its selection of furniture, objects, art, even plantings within the landscape. The two men used Post-it notes, often left on the leather-top desk in the Glass House, to update each other on their whereabouts on the 49-acre estate. “Gardening up above, love you” and “Taking a nap, heart heart heart.” They were together for 45 years until their deaths only five months apart in 2005.

Woodrow Wilson and Edith Bolling Galt

Woodrow Wilson House (Washington, D.C.)

Shortly after Woodrow Wilson became president, his first wife of 29 years fell ill and died. Sometime later, he met the elegant widow Edith Bolling Galt, owner of a prominent D.C. jeweler. Quickly besotted, Wilson wrote Galt at least daily in the heady courtship between their meeting in April 1915 and engagement that October.

On December 18, 1915, Wilson and Galt married in a small ceremony at her home; no reporters were allowed. Galt later wrote that she wore a “plain black velvet gown with velvet hat trimmed with foura [feathers]…and had lovely orchids,” and the president wore “a cutaway coat and grey striped trousers,” but no photos exist of the couple in their wedding finery.

Gari Melchers and Corinne Mackall

Gari Melchers Home and Studio (Falmouth, Virginia)

When in 1902 a young aspiring artist boarded the S.S. Aller bound for Europe, she declared herself “prostrate and overjoyed” to discover the renowned painter Gari Melchers was a fellow passenger. Corinne Mackall already knew and respected Melchers’ work after having admired “The Skaters” at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Despite a false start due to an insensitive remark made by the unsuspecting painter about “no-account art students,” the two were instantly drawn to each other, innocently flirting, dining, and dancing throughout the crossing.

After following each other around Europe, the two were engaged, despite the 20-year difference in their ages. On the eve of their marriage, Melchers wrote to Mackall: “It takes two to paint a picture, one to paint it and the other fellow to hit him over the head with a club when it’s time to stop, and in the future, you will have to be the other fellow.” In the spring of 1903, they married in a quiet civil ceremony on the Isle of Jersey.

Ann Vaughan Weaver and Ralph Norton

Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens (West Palm Beach, Florida)

Ann Vaughan Weaver and Ralph Norton were an unlikely match, as the 42-year-old artist was 30 years younger than the prominent capitalist. When she was recruited to become the first sculpting teacher at the newly established Norton Gallery, Weaver had been an independent artist for over two decades of her life. Norton and Weaver became friends, bonding over their shared love of art and classical music.

Ralph’s first wife, Elizabeth Norton, died in 1947. After six months as a widower, Norton asked Weaver to marry him. Although she agonized about what to do—she worried that marriage would interfere with her work and force her into Palm Beach society life—she ultimately said yes, with her art as a caveat. “If you are willing to take an artist for your wife and one like me,” she wrote him, “then I am yours. Gladly yours.”

Together they created a passionate, art-driven, and national legacy represented by the historic Norton House and Artist Studio, and the gardens showcasing her monumental sculptures.

Dr. James Washington and Janie Rogella Washington

Dr. James and Janie Washington Cultural Center (Seattle, Washington)

World-renowned Black sculptural carver, author, and activist James W. Washington, Jr. and his wife, Janie Rogella Washington lived in an unassuming bungalow in Seattle. Today, the site is one of the newest additions to the HAHS program. While working at a cafe in Little Rock, Arkansas, Janie met James, a civilian electrician with the Navy. Married in 1943 it wasn’t until two years later that they moved to Seattle, where they would spend the rest of their lives. James thrived in this environment, thanks to the support of his wife and the flourishing Northwest School art movement. Janie shared and inspired the spirituality that shaped the art of her husband. In the early years, she was the sole financial provider while he pursued his art.

Steele wrote daily letters to Neubacher as he oversaw construction. He wrote, “How wonderful the winds sing in the trees here, and the great views do not grow old [...] I expect I got the finest prospect in this part of the county, and, sweetheart, how I long to have you here to enjoy it, and put your heart in it. Just a little patience now, and it will come.”

The pair were married for 19 years until T.C. Steele's death in 1926.

Donate Today to Help Save the Places Where Our History Happened.

Donate to the National Trust for Historic Preservation today and you'll help preserve places that tell our stories, reflect our culture, and shape our shared American experience.