Even by District of Columbia real estate standards, the Blaine Mansion in Dupont Circle is hitting the market at a sky-high price: $29,950,000. The house, built in 1881, is the oldest estate left in the neighborhood.
The latter-day owners putting the mansion up for sale are John Phillips, an ambassador to Italy and San Marino during the Obama administration, and his wife, Linda Douglass, who also worked for President Barack Obama, as a communications adviser.
Mr. Phillips first rented a space on the lower floors for his law firm in 1993 before buying the building outright in 2006.
The brick-and-terracotta abode covers 23,600 square feet, 7,000 of which comprise the four-bedroom, seven-bathroom penthouse on the third and fourth floors.
The property taxes are as eye-popping as the price tag, coming in at $230,600 yearly, according to the sales listing from TTR Sotheby’s International Realty.
If its asking price is met or exceeded, the Blaine Mansion will break a record for the most expensive residential home to be sold in D.C. In 2007, the historic Bowie-Sevier House in Georgetown, dating to 1810, sold for $24.6 million.
The Gilded Age domicile was built from 1881-82 by, and named for, Speaker of the House and two-time Secretary of State James Blaine.
The Republican Blaine also narrowly lost the 1884 presidential election to Grover Cleveland — the first of Cleveland’s two nonconsecutive election victories.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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