The building is built on the site of a private mansion inhabited by Marie Duplessis, a courtesan renowned for her beauty and her wit, who ran a salon frequented by intellectuals and men of letters of the time. She also inspired La Dame aux Camélias to Alexandre Dumas fils, then to Verdi, the character of Violetta Valéry in La Traviata. The Mansion remained the property of the Marois family until 1927, when it cedes to the Association France-Amériques, founded in 1909 by the French diplomat and academician Gabriel Hanotaux with the aim of promoting relations between France and the American continent. It remains to this day the privileged meeting point of the Franco-American elites in the world of diplomacy, business, finance and culture.