736 Jackson Place is in the row of townhouses on the west side of Lafayette Square. It was built for Cornelia Knower Marcy in approximately 1870. Mrs. Marcy was the widow of William Learned Marcy, the Secretary of War under President Polk.
The lot was purchased from the Decatur family, who owned land surrounding their house. The house was designed in the Italianate style. The architect is not known. Carrere and Hastings remodeled the house in 1895, in the Beaux Arts style. In 1902, President Roosevelt leased it while renovations were going on in the White House, and lived there briefly.
It was acquired by the Federal government by eminent domain.