This Week’s Find: The Castle in Chevy Chase

• December 10, 2013
• 1 Comment

by UrbanTurf Staff

Rossdhu Gate

For those home buyers who wished they lived in medieval times, This Week’s Find may be to your liking.

Rossdhu Gate in Chevy Chase is the remaining piece of a 30-room castle built by socialite Daisy Calhoun and her husband in the mid-1920s. The original castle was built on 100 acres in Chevy Chase and the design was supposed to mimic that of a 15th-century castle built by Calhoun’s family in Scotland.

Soon after completion, a rocky timeline started for the castle, however:

• 1929 — When the Great Depression hit, Calhoun needed money and started using the castle as a nightclub, according to the property’s website, but that failed because of its distance from downtown.
• 1939 — The castle, gatehouse and some acreage were auctioned and the castle was turned into apartments.
• 1947 — The castle was vacated after the land was rezoned.
• 1957 — The main castle was demolished leaving just the gatehouse.

The gatehouse, now on the market for $1.5 million, has three bedrooms and 3.5 baths and an interior that harkens back to another era. It was owned by the same couple from 1939 until the 1970s and then changed hands several times over the past few decades. It hit the market five days ago.

More photos and details below.

• Full Listing: 3207 Woodbine Street, Chevy Chase, MD (map)
• Price: $1.5 million
• Bedrooms: Three
• Bathrooms: 3.5
• Year Built: 1927
• Listing Agent: Bill Panici, Weichert Realtors

Photos courtesy of HomeVisit.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/this_weeks_find_the_castle_in_chevy_chase/7912

1 Comment

1. Angry Parakeet said at 9:54 pm on Tuesday December 10, 2013:
   Thanks for that! I'm a Calhoun descendant and have visited the castle in Luss, Scotland...knew nothing of this little castle here 2 blocks from my bicycle commute to work!