“DC’s Historic SpyHouse to be Demolished for an Unnamed Project?”

“Dear PoPville,

The home of one of DC’s most open secrets, widely known only as ‘The Spy House’, has come back under intense focus by a local developer. The house at 2619 Wisconsin Ave NW, which until recently was used for decades to spy on the Russian Embassy, is at risk of being demolished.

For the last three weeks, a surveying team has been assessing the vacant lot and property, including the entire 2600 block of Wisconsin Ave NW.

At the height of the cold war, the home served as the primary observation point for intelligence gathering, including the launching point for a $160 million project to train a cat to spy on the Russians.  The historic home still resides in its original condition – an untouched interior that was once home to three shifts of agents working nonstop. As tensions have reignited between Russian and the United States, the DC Council renamed the block where the Russian Embassy sits to “Boris Nemtsov Plaza,” in honor of a slain Russian politician opposed to the Putin government.

As some of your readers may remember, this was the same parcel of land that was proposed for the Ward 3 homeless shelter and was dropped after investigations by the Washington Post and the DC Council revealed the project would be extremely lucrative for DC developers.

Whatever plans are afoot, it’s no secret that there has been a gigantic appetite for anything spy related. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for homes like this. It seems like there still could be more chapters to this spy story.”