Alexander Graham Bell's cousin and brother-in-law, Charles Bell’s peaceful life in Dupont Circle was ruffled when Mary Gage, a widow from New Jersey, moved to Washington with her daughter in 1906 and purchased the house at 4 Dupont Circle. For Mary Gage—who believed that in order to achieve social status, it was necessary to have a wide circle of acquaintances—acceptance into Washington society was everything. She claimed she could trace her lineage to several royal families of Europe and published her genealogy in a pamphlet entitled “The Colonial Ancestors and Royal Descent of Mrs.