The significance of Ash Hill, or Hitching Post Hill, is three-fold, including its architecture, its landscape architecture, and its historical associations. The house was built c. 1840 by Robert Clark, an Englishman who was seeking space and quiet in contrast to the crowded city of Washington. In 1875, General Edward Fitzgerald Beale, a pioneer (as surveyor and government agent) in the southwest and owner of Decatur House on Lafayette Square in Washington, bought the property from Robert Clark. Beale entertained President U.S. Grant, a close personal friend, President Grover Cleveland, and Buffalo Bill Cody here, among others. Grant kept his two Arabian horses, Leopard and Linden, stabled here. The original paintings of the horses hang in Decatur House, and copies hang at Ash Hill. The house, with its 12" thick brick walls and hilltop site, is an imposing one, made even more so by the massive pillared porch which surrounds it on three sides. This latter feature was added by Admiral Chauncey Thomas who purchased the property in 1895.