Step inside 1614 S St. NW in Washington, D.C.’s Dupont Circle neighborhood, and it’s clear that everything inside is brand new.
The gleaming white walls exude the smell of fresh paint. The wood floors are scuff-free. The kitchen counters appear untouched.
Step outside and it’s a different story. The towering Gothic-style home looks like something out of a “Harry Potter” movie. Enormous windows that tout the ripples that come with more than 130 years of existence complement the dark stone exterior.
“It’s really super cool. There’s so much history,” listing agent Brian Smith said.
Now, the historic residence is for sale. It’s privately listed, and it doesn’t yet have a price, but it’s set to hit the Multiple Listing Service — where real estate agents publicly share homes for sale — later this week.
It's a 134-year-old home
In 1891, T.J. Collins, a soldier-turned-architect built the home as one in a row of three stone houses, according to Smith. The residence was originally constructed for the co-founders of the news organization The Associated Press.
At the time, the structure stood alone, overlooking imposing staircases on the street.
Fast-forward more than 130 years, and the stone residences are nestled between a collection of classic, brick and colorful rowhouses signature to the neighborhood.
Developer Madison Investments purchased the property in 2023 for nearly $2 million. The group spent about a year and a half gutting and reviving the home, Smith said.
Mostly everything in the house is new, save for the original fireplace mantel and staircase banister, both of which were restored. In the backyard, the trellis of 30-year-old ivy was saved, too.
“It’s magical, like Narnia,” Smith said of the ivy.
Beyond that, much of the five-bedroom, six-bathroom house is the epitome of modernity.
In the primary bathroom, there are two shower heads facing each other, and in the middle there’s a rainfall shower head. In the kitchen, the range is imported from Sweden, and it features an electric oven for baking, a gas one for roasting and a broiler. Atop the ovens is a gas stove, with a burner specifically made for a paella pan or a wok.
Selling luxury in Dupont Circle
It takes a thoughtful approach to sell a house with the kind of price tag Smith anticipates will accompany this property when it hits the market, he said.
In this case, he started casually showing the house months ago, before construction was even completed. That’s partly due to the increased demand for bigger homes in the area as officials in President Donald Trump’s administration have sought their own residences in the D.C. area.
Smith said he showed the home to one buyer from the administration who “needed a space to entertain.” That buyer couldn’t wait for the construction to be completed, but Smith said it was a signal of the audience he needed to appeal to in selling the property.
Since then, as the house has come closer to completion and public listing, Smith has taken steps to appeal to buyers and showcase the versatility of the layout.
On the main level, for example, he made sure there’s “smaller furniture that [the owners] can easily relocate” so they can use their front room as both a sitting and dining area for entertaining. Upstairs, one of the bedrooms is staged as a sitting room to show buyers another option.
“We wanted to show that a TV room could be in close proximity to the more formal living room,” he said.
In the basement, there’s also a studio apartment, complete with a kitchen and a full bathroom. That could be a big bonus for a buyer looking to entertain, Smith said.
“It doubles as a catering staging area,” he said.
All told, the listing is just a piece of a larger story unfolding in the downtown Washington, D.C., housing market.
In the Dupont neighborhood, the median price for a single-family home is about $925,000, according to Homes.com. At the same time, sales prices are up 7% compared to a year ago.
“We’re moving on up in prices downtown,” Smith said.