The Cosmos Club on Embassy Row is a DC landmark and was built in 1901 as the home of Mary Scott Townsend, daughter of a Pennsylvania railroad and coal industrialist. The Townsend House evokes the American Gilded Age and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The house was designed for grand entertainment and no room more eloquently communicates the grandeur of the house than the Warne Ballroom. The Louis XV-style room features:

The Warne Ballroom has remained active throughout its history and continues to be used today. At over 100 years old, and showing the effects of its age, the Cosmos Club recognized the need to undertake a comprehensive conservation and restoration. As part of this project, a broad range of conservation work was performed. A professor specializing in art conservation at the University of Delaware tested 40 samples to determine the original paint and gilding (the process of applying gold leaf or gold paint) materials used in the ballroom.

The project received 2012 Washington Building Congress Craftsmanship award for plaster work and 2012 Washington Building Congress Craftsmanship award for specialty painting.