US Ambassador’s Residences in Paris and Prague

Inside Lavish Homes for the American People that Most Have Never Seen

Have you watched Netflix’s The Diplomat, the smart, witty political thriller that features Keri Russell as Kate Wyler, the new US Ambassador to the United Kingdom unexpectedly appointed to defuse a simmering international crisis?  Diplomats worldwide are said to have binged the show.  Viewers watch the career foreign service officer forge strategic alliances, manage a challenging marital relationship and adapt to her prominent position, all against a backdrop of sumptuous surroundings.  

You don’t see Winfield House, the actual residence of the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom. The Diplomat chose Wrotham Park, a grand Neo-Palladian English country house in Hertfordshire, to double for Winfield House.  It is rare for the average citizen to see inside any Ambassador’s Residence, even glimpses on TV, despite common parlance that these are homes of the American people.  Do actual Ambassador’s Residences live up the splendor that Kate enjoys?  Yes.  If the US Ambassador’s Residences in Paris and Prague (which I have had the privilege to visit) are any measure, the lavishness of Kate’s residence is bang on.

The United States (and derivatively its citizens) owns over 3500 properties in over 190 countries and 282 diplomatic posts worldwide. 37 of these are designated by the US Department of State as historically, architecturally or culturally significant in a manner similar to the National Register of Historic Places maintained by the US Department of Interiors. Winfield House and the residences in Paris and Prague are among this elite group. 

Unfortunately, unlike many domestic properties on the National Register, you can’t book a tour and must be specifically invited.  My visits were arranged by the Decorative Arts Trust and both began the same way.  The night before, it was hinted that I might wish to wear my “nice” travel clothes. We may enjoy a surprise and I should bring my passport and a second picture ID.  Matters of state could always bump a pleasure tour of an Ambassador’s Residence, so these venues were never firm on my group’s itinerary. Once we arrived, however, security matters were handled swiftly and we were graciously welcomed. For both visits, a high member of the ambassador’s staff gave us a private tour pointing out notable objects and relaying delightful anecdotes about life there. 

The Ambassador was not in residence in Prague during my tour.  While we were in Paris, however, Ambassador Bauer was conducting private meetings upstairs and when we went to the second floor we were instructed not to utter a peep so as not to disturb her. They truly squeezed us in that day.  Prince Charles and Queen Camilla were next door staying in the British Ambassador’s Residence.  We all departed at the same time, and I saw the back of the King and Queen’s motorcade. 

Paris

The Ambassador’s Residence in Paris is located at 41 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.  Its boiseries are breathtaking and appear as if they have always been there. Not true. Most of the opulent boiseries left the building after World War II only to be re-installed as part of an ongoing restoration effort that began in 1966. 

Micaela Almonester y Roxas, Baroness de Pontalba, a visionary heiress born in New Orleans in 1795, commissioned architect Louis Visconti to build the house between 1839-1859. She installed beautiful chinoiserie panels and other architectural details in the style of the Ancien Régime and enjoyed her home until she died in 1874. After her death, her sons sold the home to Edmond de Rothschild in 1876, who remodeled the mansion extensively but essentially retained Pontalba’s original floor plan for the principal rooms.  

When the Rothschilds fled to Switzerland during World War II,  their home became an officers club for the Nazis.  The mansion never again served as a private residence.  The Rothschilds’ removed many of the objects and architectural details after the war for installation elsewhere. In 1948, the United States purchased the property for the US Information Service and to house staff working on implementing the Marshall Plan. Much of the building was remodeled to serve as offices.  It was not until 1966 that the US government decided to restore the mansion and its expansive grounds to serve as the Ambassador’s Residence.  Through exhaustive research, strategic auction house purchases and gifts from the Rothschild family, the home now resembles its early splendor. 

Prague

Although Prague’s political history in the previous century has been far more turbulent than Paris’, the Ambassador’s Residence  has stayed much as it was conceived by Otto Petschek, the wealthy banker and industrialist who built it.  Known as the Villa Petschek, the home is organized as a sweeping crescent that embraces a Winter Garden. Petschek fancied himself an armchair architect and his design books remain in the library.  Constructed between 1924-1929, the home was inspired by his many trips to Versailles. Petschek equipped it with highly innovative technological details, including electronically operated windows in the Winter Garden that sink to the basement so that the room can open to the large rear garden in fine weather.  Sadly, Petscheck only lived in his dream home for 4 years, before dying in 1934. Its construction nearly bankrupted him.  

In 1938, the Petschek family escaped the Nazis and left Europe.  During WWII, General Toussaint, the Germany military governor of Prague, occupied Villa Petschek and later it was taken over by Soviet and Czech forces. The United States first began leasing the property in 1948, and later acquired it as part of a reparations settlement with Czechoslovakia for use as the US Ambassador’s Residence.  The furnishings in the house reflect its history, serving almost as a document to the region’s political changes. There is even a table or two that bear a Nazi insignia on  the underside as a cautionary reminder of that dark chapter.  

Since acquired by the United States government, the Villa has been a haven. Writers, poets, playwrights are frequently hosted at receptions, dinners and cultural events to encourage the free flow of ideas.  When I visited Prague, I felt completely safe, but a more violent past was not that long ago.  It was only in 1989 that it became clear that the Villa’s shield only extended to its gate.  Vaclav Havel, the leader of the anti-communist movement and later president of the new Czech Republic, was arrested a mere two blocks away after departing one of the Villa’s cultural occasions. While today much of Prague’s communist past has been scrubbed away, Villa Petschek is an enduring reminder of the need for a democratic sanctuary abroad.

If you do tune into The Diplomat, I hope you take a closer look at the trappings that surround the stars.  The sets play a key role in telling the story. The concept that a residence and its interior design can import powerful messages of prestige, stability and values to the world is not new.  After all, Louis XIV turned a hunting lodge into Versailles for similar reasons.  

Bon voyage, 

Lynn

Photography

All photos by Lynn Byrne.

Paris

The Octagonal Signing Room above and below, with re-fitted boiseries that came from the Hôtel Biron, above and below.

A classic French lounge just outside the ladies room near the Octagonal Signing Room.

The Pontalba Salon, next two pictures below, where ten of the original chinoiserie panels were found circa 2000 and reinstalled.

The Family Dining Room

The Samuel Bernard Salon

Heading Upstairs

The Thomas Jefferson Presidential Bedroom, where every US President sleeps while in Paris.

The Jefferson Library

The front exterior and beautiful rear garden.

Next door at the British Ambassador’s Residence bedecked with banners for the King and Queen’s visit.

Prague

The Winter Garden, above and below, with windows that retract to the basement.

Fanciful lighting in the Winter Garden.

The library contains Otto Petschek’s design books.

The Music Room

The Grand Entry Staircase.

Further Reading

How “real” is The Diplomat? 

The Last Palace by Norman Eisen, a former US Ambassador to the Czech Republic,  is a fascinating book about Villa Petschek and the history of the region. Here

The US Department of State’s Culturally Significant Properties.

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