Unique Spaces: Once a Carriage House, Now a Home

• April 27, 2010
• 5 Comments

by Jennifer Sergent

The carriage house at 1809 20th Street NW

The mansion is long gone, but the 1890 carriage house down the alley from 1809 20th Street NW in Dupont Circle is still alive and well, thanks to a top-to-bottom renovation in the 1980s that turned an abandoned shell into one of the neighborhood’s more interesting properties.

“I was in the neighborhood [before the renovation], and I can remember it was this very dilapidated brick building,” current owner Harvey Yampolsky told UrbanTurf. “You could look inside through the windows and see the sky.”

In the early 1980s, Bill Keyserling, a political consultant to presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, purchased the ruined property and turned it into a loft-like space – back when “loft” wasn’t yet a frequently used real estate term. The house briefly served as a Dukakis campaign office, with a call center filling the large first-floor space. However, the charming environs did not help the Democrats. Dukakis lost the 1988 presidential election, and Keyserling left DC not long after.

Living room, looking toward the dining area

The main floor is three separate spaces in one. The upstairs rooms open to the space below.

The house was rented for a few years, and then Yampolsky and his partner, Randy Wellons, purchased it in 1990. Yampolsky immediately fell in love with the home’s big open spaces. Being from New York, he was used to the loft spaces of SoHo, a rarity in city dwellings back then.

“It was the beginning of an era of open floor plans,” he said.

The large indoor and outdoor spaces do have a downside: the home is so popular that the couple’s friends regularly ask to hold parties there. (A party with 100 people can flow easily inside and out of the home.)

Outdoor deck area

Study

The men have not made any changes to the initial renovation in an effort to maintain as much of the character of the carriage house as possible. The fact that the upstairs rooms look down on the first floor speaks to the home’s history of what was likely a hay loft over the horse stalls. The couple thought of installing screens in the bedroom for privacy, but quickly adjusted to the openness.

Yampolsky acknowledges that the style of the interiors – planking on the ceilings, royal blue on the tin kitchen ceiling and in the bathroom tiles – are reminiscent of styles popular in the 1980s.

“When we moved in, everything was very trendy,” Yampolsky explained. “As the years went by, we felt like anything we changed would change the overall effect.”

However, one of the enduring effects that Yamplolsky loves to this day is the fact that stepping inside is like stepping out of the city altogether.

“People always say the same thing – when you’re in here, you don’t feel like you’re in the city, but rather some place up in New Hampshire in the mountains. It was the feeling I had the first time I moved in here.”

• 1809 20th Street NW, Carriage House (map)
• On the market for $1.489 million
• Listing Courtesy of Martin Toews and Jeff Brier, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage

UrbanTurf contributor Jennifer Sergent is the brains behind the DC By Design blog. She was most recently the senior editor at Washington Spaces magazine.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/unique_spaces_once_a_carriage_house_now_a_home/2012

5 Comments

1. Artistic Design said at 12:00 pm on Tuesday April 27, 2010:

   Wowsers. Very cool place. I love the fact that the upstairs rooms all look down into living room. Not surprised that all their friends want to throw parties there.

1. SimonF said at 9:34 pm on Tuesday April 27, 2010:

   Incredible home. Does some of the art convey?

1. B Green said at 9:54 am on Wednesday April 28, 2010:

   Bill Keiserling is my dad’s cousin.  He’s now the mayor of Beaufort, SC.  Apparently he fixed up quite a few places when he was living in DC.  If only this place were in my price range…

1. Jackie B said at 8:06 am on Thursday April 29, 2010:

   This place has been on the market for months and months - interesting to see the asking price hold firm though interest is clearly not coming through at that price point. Lovely home, but perhaps a smidge overpriced…

1. Harvey Yampolsky said at 4:26 pm on Sunday May 2, 2010:

   We appreciate the compliments and the news that Bill K is mayor of Beaufort now.  Just to correct the record, we put the house on the market for the first time on April 9, 2010.

Join the discussion