The grandeur and expense of the Octagon’s architecture conveyed the valuable message that Colonel John Tayloe was a man to do business with. He was settled and clearly prosperous. His wife’s social alliances, carried out in the Octagon’s beautiful parlor and dining room, also served the business. Invitations to tea, dinner, and fancy-dress balls were the rewards Ann Tayloe could bestow on her husband’s clients and their wives. Social functions at the Octagon gave the lucky few who were invited entrée into a rarefied circle of diplomats, members of Congress, and even the White House. Dances and games of cards were also shrewdly calculated opportunities to woo those who might become future clients and business partners of John Tayloe. Even the large family raised by the Tayloes had a commercial function. Not only would male heirs ensure the family business would likely stay intact, but the marrying-off of so many attractive and eligible daughters extended and strengthened a useful web of social and commercial contacts up and down the East Coast.
