Overview
Tingey House, Quarters A of the Washington Navy Yard, was built in 1804 for Commodore Thomas Tingey, the Yard's first commandant, who commanded it for a quarter-century — including the anguished night in 1814 when he ordered the Yard burned ahead of the British — and who died in the house in 1829; it has served as the commandant's official residence ever since, today the home of the Chief of Naval Operations, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied official residences in the country. Navy telling, passed between households for generations, holds that Tingey never surrendered his quarters: residents and staff have described a uniformed figure at the upstairs windows, footsteps, doors opening, and small disturbances laid affectionately at the Commodore's door, with the story acknowledged in Navy heritage writing. The house sits inside an active military installation with no public access whatsoever, which the record must state plainly — this is a heritage story, not a destination. Present the accounts as service folklore around a real and remarkable naval life.