The First Home of Chevy Chase Lists for $25.9 Million

• May 17th 2018

by Nena Perry-Brown

The home known as Ishpiming has hit the market for a very lofty price. Built by the Chevy Chase Land Company (CCLC) in 1894, the seven-bedroom home on Chevy Chase Circle has been listed for $25.9 million by Edward Duncan with Long & Foster. 

Located at 9 Chevy Chase Circle (map) just past Western Avenue, the house was built as a part of the 305-acre Chevy Chase neighborhood straddling the border — a neighborhood planned in response to construction of a trolley line parallel to Connecticut Avenue NW.

Then-senator and owner of CCLC Francis Newlands had the house built for himself and his second wife. The three-story home was designed by Leo Dessez in Queen Anne style, announcing itself with a coach gate at the front door sheltering the circular driveway.

The house was later purchased by businessman William S. Corby in 1909, who oversaw a 25-year renovation of the property helmed by National Cathedral architect Arthur Heaton. The renovation lent the house a more Tudor revival aesthetic, featuring grand leaded and stained glass windows and ornate plaster wall and ceiling details. Corby named the home "Ishpiming", which is a Chippewa word meaning "high ground". 

“The softened colors of vast antique tapestries, the varying sunset tones of some of Lucien Powell’s finest canvases, the glint of Florentine armor combine in a setting ideal for listening to the harmonies of a Beethoven sonata, a Chopin waltz or the rollicking airs of ‘The Beggar’s Opera’,” the Washington Post waxed poetic about the ballroom in a 1933 write-up. “A Broadway tune would be sacrilege in such surroundings.” A two-story pipe organ that anchored the room was later replaced by an elevator.

A loft-like spiral stair leads to a sitting area that looks down into the ballroom. The second level also has three master suites, each with fireplaces and dressing rooms. The third level has additional bedrooms and sitting rooms, as well as rehearsal and artists' studios. The house also has an outdoor terrace with a bar and retractable walls, as well as a pool, pool terrace and a carriage house.

More details can be found here. 

Photos by HomeVisit.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the-first-home-of-chevy-chase-lists-for-259-million/14001.