“He took one have a look at this tiny little form of farmhouse cottage that had 10-foot ceilings on the primary stage and mentioned, ‘Sure, we will work with this,’” Smith mentioned.
An current wing of the home was preserved through the renovation, which took greater than a 12 months, and one other wing was added. Jacobsen retained some the home’s Victorian traits (although not the turquoise exterior), however he downplayed their significance.
“The combo works finest when it’s 90 p.c fashionable,” he advised Home & Backyard in Could 1977. “In impact, this home is as Victorian as a Chevrolet.”
In 1985, Jacobsen oversaw additional renovations, together with transforming the kitchen. A patio and a Victorian-style gazebo had been added to the entrance yard. The putting out of doors construction, in line with a 1988 Architectural Digest article, is a results of the Elliotts’ asking Jacobsen to “carve a non-public yard inside the entrance yard.” The completed product features a six-foot-eight climate vane within the form of an English griffin.
Jacobsen described the home — now available on the market for $3.25 million — as “a maverick,” and others have admired its originality. It gained an American Institute of Architects award in 1978 and one other in 1988. It stands out amongst its neighbors within the Chevy Chase Village Historic District, the place such renovations are now not allowed.
Jacobsen, who died in 2021, labored for such distinguished purchasers as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Meryl Streep, and he left his mark in and round D.C. His own residence, in Georgetown, was listed this summer time for $6.2 million.
The wood-and-glass entrance entryway of the Chevy Chase home leads, on one facet, to a front room with floor-to-ceiling home windows and, on the opposite, to a parlor with egg-crate bookshelves (so-called due to their many interlocking compartments).
In again, the home has the eating room and the kitchen, with a 12-foot ceiling and skylights. It additionally has a household room, a den (or extra bed room) and a full rest room. A patio wraps round one facet and the again of the home.
The first bed room suite fills the newer wing’s second stage. It features a dressing space, vaulted ceilings and a toilet with a skylight. A washer and dryer are additionally on this stage, together with two extra bedrooms with massive closets and a shared corridor rest room. The decrease stage consists of unfinished space for storing.
The property has not modified households for the reason that Elliotts purchased it within the mid-Seventies. “It’s going to be bizarre to let it go,” Smith mentioned. She lived in the home till she moved out after school in 1989. “It’s been such a fixture in my life.”
- Bedrooms/loos: 4/3
- Approximate square-footage: 3,200
- Lot measurement: 0.28 acres
- Options: Initially inbuilt 1871 as a carriage home, this residence underwent a significant renovation within the mid-Seventies by distinguished modernist architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen however retains Victorian touches. The clapboard-sided home has a front-yard gazebo, a wheelchair-accessible ramp entrance and driveway parking for 2 vehicles.
- Itemizing agent: Liz Lavette Shorb, Washington High quality Properties
