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Visitors to Washington, DC and to the US Capitol Building may notice that one of the office buildings for members of the House of Representatives is called the Longworth Office Building. However, most people have no clue who the Longworth is that gave his name to the building.
He is Nicholas Longworth, former Speaker of the House during the late 1920s-early 1930s and Republican Congressman from Cincinnati, Ohio. However, he was probably most famous for being the wife of Theodore Roosevelt’s famous daughter, Alice.
Nick Longworth was the only son of a Cincinnati wine maker. He was spoiled and pampered by his mother and two sisters, all of whom would have been happy to see him remain a bachelor. He went to college at Harvard, became a member of the elite Porcellian Club, and soon began his political career.
During his early days in Washington, Longworth garnered a reputation as one of the country’s most eligible bachelors. He was relatively young and dashing, enjoyed fine wine and played the violin. The young Congressman from Ohio came to Washington on the Republican popularity wave that re-elected William McKinley into the White House. After McKinley’s assassination and Roosevelt’s rise to the White House, Longworth became a favorite of the First Family. The President enjoyed the Congressman for what they had in common – their college alma mater and membership into the same clubs, their political allies, their aristocratic backgrounds.
But it was the president’s daughter, Alice, who was smitten with Longworth. At first it was a game to see who could capture the Congressman’s attention between Alice and the daughter of the Russian ambassador, Marguerite Cassini. Sometimes Longworth was seen with Alice; sometimes it was Cassini on his arm. A noted playboy, he enjoyed the attention and the affections. However, it became apparent to Mrs. Roosevelt that it was no longer a game to Alice. She had fallen in love with the Ohioan, who was 15 years her senior.
The turning point in their relationship came when the president sent Secretary of War William Taft on a junket to the Far East with a number of members of Congress. Alice Roosevelt went along on the trip as the official representative of the president. In 1905, Taft felt that it was his duty to act as a chaperone to the Alice, and after deciding that Alice and Nick had become too chummy, he pulled Alice aside and asked if she was engaged to Longworth. “More or less, Mr. Secretary,” she answered, “more or less.”
Their stormy marriage began in 1906. Nick never gave up his playboy ways and eventually had a long, steamy affair with Cissy Patterson, a long-time rival of Alice’s. Alice became a staunch ally of her father’s. Their marriage hung by a thread in 1912 as her father ran a bitter presidential campaign against Longworth family friend Taft. It was a period that truly tore Nick apart: did he throw his support behind his friend and the man chosen to represent his party in the election, or did he throw caution – and possibly his career – to the wind to support his father-in-law, and by extension, his wife? It didn’t matter. Not only did Taft lose, so did Longworth. He lost his seat and Congress and returned home for the next two years. Alice, miserable and living with her in-laws, pushed for her husband’s re-election to Congress, which happened in 1914. The two spent the rest of their lives in Washington, DC. However, the marriage by this time was in name only. When Alice became pregnant many years later, no one believed that the child was fathered by Longworth, yet he adored the little girl named Paulina. He often took her to his office on Capitol Hill, and arranged for the members of the House to sing happy birthday to her.
Longworth was not the most distinguished member of Congress of his time. He may have been, however, one of the most likeable, which is why he was elected Speaker of the House until the Democrats won Washington in 1936. He never had the opportunity to step down, however, dying before the end of that year.
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