The Dove House Mansion Love Story

• March 24, 2012

by UrbanTurf Staff

Dove House

Every day on the way to work, a member of the UrbanTurf staff walks by and marvels at the Dove House, a pink, Neo-Romanesque building on the corner of New Hampshire and S Street NW (map). Earlier this afternoon, we paid a visit to one of the building’s top-floor units that just hit the market.

The top floor of the Dove House

Originally built in the late 19th century as the primary residence for Maury Dove, who co-owned some of the city’s more famous hotels (The Raleigh, The Willard), the 15,000 square foot home was converted into 14 individual units in the late 1970s. This two-bedroom, penthouse-level condo is arguably the most awe-inducing as it shows off the building’s original ceiling, a tent-like feature that still has the original wooden beams. One of the bedrooms overlooks the octagonal living room, and in addition to the ceiling, the home is filled with charming aspects including a built-in table in the kitchen, a small balcony off the second bedroom that looks like it belongs in Paris, and a private old fashioned elevator that opens into the unit foyer.

Current owners Katherine Fitzhugh and John Martin (whom you might recognize if you watched ABC News back in the 1980s and 90s) actually met while living in two of the building’s other apartments. They ended up buying the unit in 1999 with an eye toward using it as a pied-a-tierre in retirement, but Martin works in New York, so they have never actually lived there. Instead, they have rented it out for the past 13 years, most recently to the British Embassy.

“We are certainly sad to see it go,” Fitzhugh said. “Aside from the unit itself, this building has special meaning considering this is where John and I met.”

• Full Listing: 1740 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Unit NH-G (map)
• Price: $769,500
• Bedrooms: Two
• Bathrooms: 1.5
• Square Footage: 1,392
• Listing Agent: Steven Henry, Long & Foster

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/a_look_inside_dove_house_mansion/5327