This Week's Find: A Former Capitol Hill Rectory Searches For a New Life

• November 29th 2017

by Nena Perry-Brown

Up until recently, 222 8th Street NE served as the rectory for Saint Monica and Saint James Episcopal Church, a parish formed in 2008 via the merger of St. James with historic Black church St. Monica’s on Massachusetts Avenue — a building now enjoying a new life as The Residences at St. Monica’s. Now, the rectory has hit the market as it embarks on a second life.

The property shares an address with the church next door, both of which were built out of brick and Potomac blue stone by New York architect Harry Congdon in the late 19th century. Constructed as a residence for the church’s vicar, the rectory has been featured on the Capitol Hill House and Garden Tour several times over the past half-century.

Measuring 27 feet by 50 feet, the house has over 7,000 square feet of interior space and sits on a nearly half-acre lot. Dark-stained oak molding and coffered ceilings are featured prominently across its four stories.

Upon entry, an original “bread door” sits on the left side of the central hall, marking where daily deliveries of fresh-baked bread were once accepted. A narrow butler’s pantry with floor-to-ceiling oak cabinetry leads to the kitchen, which has an original pizza oven-style alcove that references the five fireplaces found throughout the rest of the house.

A few of the seven bedrooms were long ago used as servant quarters and are thus hidden upstairs, accessible only via a winding back stairwell hidden behind a closet door. The basement is largely unfinished, giving a new owner plenty of space to make the house their own. More details and images are below.

• Address: 222 8th Street NE (map)
• Price: $2,295,000
• Bedrooms: Seven
• Bathrooms: 3.5
• Listing Agent: Russell Firestone, TTR Sotheby’s International Realty

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/this_weeks_find_a_former_rectory_filled_with_fireplaces/13302.