This Week's Find: Lighthouse-Style Living in Georgetown

• June 13th 2018

by Nena Perry-Brown

While some homes are architecturally interesting, others employ interior design so thoroughly that it transforms the house.

Located a short walk from the Georgetown waterfront, This Week’s Find falls into the latter category, having been transformed over two decades by its owner into a house that simultaneously evokes an old New England cottage and a houseboat.

The semi-detached house on 29th Street was built in 1908 by William Blount as an office. After buying the property in the mid-1990s, owner Jim Lande was very deliberate when he set about accomplishing his planned aesthetic.

"I recognized that it's very easy to tip over from having nautical inspiration into being a cliché and overdoing it," Lande explained to UrbanTurf. "You end up looking like a seafood restaurant if you start putting up fishnets and buoys." 

Rather than go that route, Lande settled on a theme of colors and materials, incorporating navy, black and red with steel, chrome, polished brass, and bare woods that are typical to boats, such as Honduran and African mahogany and teak.

The home's front door features a rope-operated doorbell that is literally attached to a bell just inside. A maritime-style hand-carved teak banner with gold foil sits above the door to announce the address, including the Colonial-era name of the street. Shelving units were built into the living room, which also features a wood-paneled fireplace with a Curitiba quartzite hearth that is meant to evoke the pebbly beaches of Michigan.

The kitchen is decked completely in mahogany and has complementary Black Morgan granite flooring, a Black Galaxy granite two-basin farmhouse sink, a True commercial refrigerator with glass doors, a custom built-in banquette with Black Galaxy granite tabletop and a custom British AGA stove with five separate electric and gas ovens, including one perfect for making pizza. The backsplash is comprised of three maps mounted behind glass, featuring Cape Cod, the upper half of Lake Michigan, and the Chesapeake Bay off of Annapolis.

The hallway and rooms upstairs also feature mahogany beadboard ceilings, and an additional built-in banquette-style desk sits in the second bedroom, which leads out to a second terrace. As an added piece of history, the granite blocks that comprise the rear terrace were sourced from the Watergate, having been replaced there with red brick years ago. The home is listed with Fergus O'Brien of TTR Sotheby's International Realty and an offer deadline has been set for this Monday. 

More photos and details are below.

• Full Listing: 1016 29th Street NW (map)
• Price: $699,000
• Bedrooms: Two
• Bathrooms: One
• Square Feet: 860
• Year Built: 1908
• Listing Agent: Fergus O'Brien, TTR Sotheby's International Realty

Photos by Sean Shanahan.

Correction: An earlier version of this article had incorrect info on when and by whom the property was built; it was constructed in 1908, not 1900, and was built by William Blount, not Smoot Concrete.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/this-weeks-find-lighthouse-style-living-in-georgetown/14106.