5 Years Ago… The Mt. Pleasant Mansion was in Massive Disrepair

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by Prince Of Petworth April 23, 2013 at 4:00 pm 28 Comments

18th_and_monroe_old_mansion
2008

Today it is condos but the developers of the old mansion at 18th and Monroe St, NW did a great job maintaining the integrity of the house:

2013

Anonymous

Lovely. This just made me think that the Old Naval Hospital / Hill Center would be a great comparison to do!
Anonymous

Used to live around the corner from that place 2006-08. Nice to see it restored a bit. Still needs more cosmetic work.
Anonymous

Anyone know if the original owners had a change of heart and fixed it up, or are there new owners??
- pdmtp
  
  Sold to developers. I was kind of tempted, but realistically I didn’t have the renovation chops to know what I’d be getting into.
  - Anonymous
    
    Probably a wise choice my friend. I imagine this house was the that old movie “The Money Pit” but worse
  - pdmtp
    
    Sanity prevailed. But it went for $1.35 million, which might not be insane depending on how bad it was.
emmaleigh504

Love this house, wonder what color the walls are on the inside.
Anonymous

Are they still trying to sell the tiny carriage house for way too much money? Or did it finally close?
- cornholiodc
  
  Tiny? It’s 1,630 sq ft. Not sure where you live…
  - Anonymous
    
    Pictures were MUCH smaller. I see that it says 1600 sq ft on the developer’s website, but I think it was much less than that on Redfin (the listing is gone from Redfin and none of the sold listings for this property are showing up – can you get sales records removed from Redfin?). If you look at the floor plan, the livable interior space is only something like 600 sq ft. They were asking $499K for a 1BR/1BA
    
    I think the 1600 number might have included some sort of sketchy outdoor space that was unclear. The developer was making all sorts of weird/shady misrepresentations about the size of the apartments.
    - cornholiodc
      
      I see. I think it did sell since you can no longer click through on the floor plan for the carriage house, but you are able on some of the apartments (assuming those ones are still on the market).
Anonymous

Anyone know how many condos, how big, how much? Or what it’s called so I can look for that info myself? I lived across the street for a year, and we used to stare at it and fantasize about what we’d do with it if we had a million bucks. Or, ok, 4 to 5 million bucks.
- Anonymous
  
  Found it!
  http://www.theschafer.com/interior/
  - cornholiodc
    
    Thanks for posting.
No More

Boo – see what evils come with gentrification?
- msfanster
  
  I want to tread lightly here…. because sarcasm can get waylaid online. You WERE kidding, right?
Anonymous

I was there a few years ago for a yard sale. Sad to see such a lovely home turn into Condos :(
- Anonymous
  
  Actually, I was just thinking how perfect it is. No one needs or wants that kind of space. But who wouldn’t love to live in a mansion like that, with those amazing features? Best of both worlds.
  Do a little internet sleuthing– you’ll see that we’re not talking about Douglas Dev style condos. The outfit that did this reno kept quite a lot of the cool features– fireplaces, mouldings, windows & shutters…
- DC
  
  And more density means the neighborhood can support more businesses. And people can move in without displacing longtime residents. Looks great.
- emmaleigh504
  
  Better than letting such a pretty building get torn down and a boring box built.
justinbc

The picture comparison really only seems to show better landscaping (and different time of year)? And a fresh coat of paint on the trim? Oh and the fence is gone.
- Anonymous
  
  Did you see the house pre-2011? There were several spots where the roof had caved in or was on its way to caving in. You could look through (broken, separating) windows and see the water coursing down the walls. Most of this was not visible from 18th Street.
  - justinbc
    
    I’m not saying great work wasn’t done, just that it’s not really all that apparent from the photo comparison.
Anonymous

It would be great if they’d someday get around to updating their web site with some pictures of the actual complete renovations.
Jason

It’s a whole lot more than that. It took them over a year to restore it from top to bottom, while saving a lot of original detail. The new roof alone was probably 50k
Anonymous

I live in the ‘hood — the place was in *terrible* shape. I second the earlier comment about this being an amazing example of development that works — protecting historic buildings but making them useful for today. Contributes historic perspective, renewed beauty and more people to the neighborhood. The developer deserves an award from the community. I understand they worked very closely and successfully with Historic MtP and avoided virtually all the zany antics the neighborhood is capable of in these situations.
allison

It’s cool they named the condos after the original rooms of the house. I’d love to say (*cough* British accent) “why yes, I live in the liiiiiibrary” or the “billlllliard roooooooom!”
Anonymous

While the developer could have put some more effort into the landscaping, particularly repairs to the stone retaining wall surrounding the property, they did a great job on the house.

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