File:2419 Wyoming Avenue NW - Austrian ambassadorial residence - Washington DC - 2013-09-15 (10107554285).jpg

The residence of the Ambassador from Austria at 2419 Wyoming Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., in the United States. One more stop on the 2013 Kalorama House Tour!

The Mediterranean Revival-style mansion was designed by Appleton P. Clarke and completed in 1926. It was commissioned by William Livingston Crounse, an MIT and Harvard drop-out who was briefly involved in manufacturing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Crounse moved to Washington, D.C., in 1884 and got a plum job as a Treasury disbursing officer -- handing out cash to contractors. His father, Lorenzo Livingston Crounse, was a distinguished journalist who founded the D.C. bureau of the "New York Times", and William wanted to be one, too. He began a career in journalism on the side, and left government service in 1885 to pursue it full-time. He was a regular commentator for the "New York Sun", "Boston Globe", "Philadelphia Times", "Pittsburgh Despatch", "St. Louis Post-Dispatch", and other newspapers. In October 1888, he was appointed chief correspondent for the "New York World". He traveled around the world, becoming one of the foremost foreign correspondents of his day. His fame rose even more during the Spanish-American War of 1898 as he reported luridly from the front lines.

After the war, Crounse returned to D.C. and co-founded the National Press Club. He then left journalism and became a writer for a number of technical and trade journals. He married in 1911. In 1914, Crounse became the chief lobbyist for the National Wholesale Druggists' Association. He also lobbied for tobacco and cosmetics companies. He retired in 1934, and died on November 21, 1935, at the age of 74. He left his wife a fortune estimate at $700,000.

Crounse's widow, Pepita, was a social doyenne of D.C. society and a well-known author of adventure-romances. In September 1937, Pepita spontaneously married Joseph Whitlaw Stinson, a D.C. attorney, journalist, painter, and engineer. Within two years, the marriage had fallen apart. Pepita claimed Stinson drugged her and forced her to marry him, then spent her money "like a drunken sailor." Lurid divorce proceedings in March 1939 led to accusations of wife-beating, wife-poisoning, a butler's attempt to stop the marriage, and claims that Stinson drugged Pepita in order to force her to give him cash. She also claimed Stinson drugged her, then forced her to put her home on the market. Pepita also charged that the nurse Stinson hired to care for her during a mental breakdown in 1938 later became Stinson's mistress.

The marriage was duly annulled. But Jessica Shoemaker, the nurse Mrs. Stinson accused of conspiring with Joseph Whitla Stinson to drug her into marriage and dupe her out or her $700,000 fortune, sued Pepita Crounse for libel. She won $26,000 from the lady.

Pepita Crounse married Oscar L. Milmore (a career diplomat with the State Department), and reigned supreme as a hostess and poet in D.C. society for the next decade. She died on January 30, 1951. She left her entire $700,000 fortune to her husband (having spent almost nothing of her first husband's estate). Milmore sold the mansion at 2419 Wyoming Avenue to the Austrian Embassy in 1951, and moved to Boston.

Side note: Milmore died in February 1972 at the age of 86, having spent the last two decades living off the inheritance from his wife. He originally left his $1.5 million estate (that's $8.7 million in 2013 dollars) to the National Gallery of Art. Milmore put most of his money into a trust, which was managed by American Security & Trust Company -- D.C.'s second largest bank. Thomas Reynolds, the 1st vice president of the bank, was the trust officer.

Reynolds was a no-good scam artist. He'd briefly served as president of Washington Hospital Center -- the area's largest private hospital. During that time, he set up million-dollar expense accounts, gave himself interest-free loans that were forgiven, and diverted the hospital's endowment business to his son-in-law.

Milmore underwent brain surgery in 1967. His health rapidly failed afterward. In the last months of his life, Milmore was critically ill. He lay in a coma in a hospital in San Antonio, Texas, for three months. Later transferred to Boston, he was in a nursing home and either unconscious or mentally incompetent. On December 17, 1971, Milmore's will was changed. Instead of receiving a $10,000 lump-sum, Reynolds' wife was named one of three primary beneficiaries. The others were Lespenard Phister (Milmore's Boston attorney) and Mrs. Patricia Gray (Milmore's long-time companion in the 1950s and 1960s). Gray received $400,000, but the others split the remaining $1.1 million.

The very, very, pissed off National Gallery of Art sued. It alleged that Phister and Reynolds lied to Milmore, telling him that the museum never appeciated his gift. (In fact, the museum did not know about it.) Then Reynolds drew up a new will, flew to San Antonio, and waited most of the day for Milmore to come out of his coma long enough to sign the new document. Phister denied being Milmore's attorney, and the bank said it "fully investigated" the signing of the will by talking to Reynolds, Milmore's doctor, and two hospital workers who witnessed the will-signing. (In fact, the bank spent less than a day doing so.)

The bank lost.