Embassy of Myanmar

The Gales House is the earliest of the series of Georgian Revival mansions on S Street and as such is more archaeological in its reinterpretation of American eighteenth-century architecture than many later examples. End chimneys, a gambrel roof, corner quoins, pedimented dormer windows with switch-back tracery, and prominent flat arches over rectangular windows are all common to the tradition. Clarke's wide projecting central bay, however, is forceful in its parts and eclectic in its elements. A broad, elliptically curved Ionic porch shelters a Federal-style doorway with side lights and an elliptical fanlight. Its classical balustrade is repeated only in front of the wide central dormer, itself unusual in its broken pediment and abstract Palladian motif.