 Their home became a salon for the capital's literati and politically powerful.In 1881, the Adamses purchased a lot on the northwest corner of 16th Street NW and H Street NW on Lafayette Square, and with their friend John Hay began building the famous Hay-Adams Houses—two of the most architecturally important private residences ever built in the city.Marian Adams' beloved father, to whom she was exceptionally close, died on April 13, 1885, and she sank into a deep depression.