Mystery Building Up For Sale
You don't have to be PoP to obsess about homes that are not yours. This is one of the city's great pastimes: walking its blocks and gawking at its homes. We are all rubberneckers for a great built-in library, interesting stained-glass, a well-manicured yard, a big, well-lit living space.
Then there are the mystery buildings–the places that either look like rundown embassies or the once-grand quarters of some senator or freaky cult. I've spent a lot of time recently trying to figure out the large Grey Gardens-style joint at 1720 16th Street NW.
The building has 15 bedrooms, 9.5 bathrooms, and covers 6,700 Sq. ft. And a big-ass horror-classic gate. Inside, there must be a candelabra or two, a player piano, some Anne Rice books, and of course, Magick.
I could be wrong about the Magick. The building rarely appears occupied. On only one occasion did I find people hanging out on its stoop. I took this as my big chance to find out what goes on inside.
I carefully walked past the gate. I asked as politely as I could a variation on "What the hell is up with your building?"
Unfortunately, the kids decided to be snotty about it and refused to tell me. Now the building is for sale. List price: $7.5 million.
2:51 pm
totally like grey gardens!!
3:29 pm
That's the former Toutorsky Mansion, built in 1893. There's plenty of information on it in the book "Sixteenth Street Architecture" - not sure if it's in volume 1 or 2 offhand. Will check the books when I get home.
3:34 pm
I think it's a bed and breakfast or was.
http://www.bedandbreakfast.com/photo-washington-dc-toutorsky_mansion.html
3:35 pm
To give some credit here, a web-savvy reader sent me that link.
3:44 pm
a co-worker stayed there at the bed and breakfast a month or two ago. apparantely the guy running it is well-known in the neighborhood...and makes a pretty decent breakfast!
4:40 pm
"What the hell is up with your building?”
That's funny, because that is awfully close to the phrase "What's With That House?"
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/shows_hwth/episode/0,,HGTV_24598_49549,00.html
4:43 pm
Maybe the double-womb/triple-fetus doctor should buy it to house her expanding brood.
9:05 pm
It's not so much a mystery. Get your coffee at Java House on 17th and meet the owner. He's the tallish, thinish, youngish and fitish looking Cuban guy.
1:48 pm
Was a National Symphony Show House one year in the 90s, I think. Guy named Bruce Johnson used to own it. Pete Rosenstein used to throw the odd fundraiser there.
10:16 pm
Many, many years ago, I was a piano study of Basil Toutorsky. This was his house and it is where I went for my lessons and recitals. He and his wife were very kind and the inside of the house and all their furnishings were amazing. I remember my first lesson, arriving at the house - the exterior was spooky, the interior was dark but fabulous. It was another world...