Mansion visited by Diana and JFK left to rot ‘as all people hates all people’
A once-grand mansion that welcomed A-List visitors has been padlocked and left empty since 2014.
Found on the corner of R and 30th Street in the leafy suburbs of Washington DC, the grand home hosted the likes of Princess Diana, JFK and Ronald Reagan in its heyday.
Built in 1784 by the second mayor of Georgetown, Thomas Beall, it was home to ex-Washington Post publisher Philip Graham and his family at the time.
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Following the death of Graham’s wife, Katherine, in 2001, the luxury property was bought by venue capitalist Mark Ein for $8million, with the aim to eventually raise a family there. However, now, he’s hoping to sell up because his rich neighbours have made it impossible to modernise the property, reports DailyMail.
(Image: Getty Images)
After Ein wedded his wife in 2013, the pair began to make plans to extend the historic house, which had been left in a state of unfinished renovations from the 60s, initially overseen by the Grahams.
All proposed changes, big and small, had to be scrutinised by the Old Georgetown Board, made up of residents, which reviewed all changes to historic properties in the neighbourhood.
The Eins wanted a two-storey extension out the back as well as two garages in the front, however their next-door neighbours, real estate power couple Jane and Calvin Cafritz, and the bloke across the road, Robert Budic, were quick to reject the plans, with posh toff-like arguments.
(Image: DC Preservation League)
The Cafritzes claimed the additions would ruin their home’s “feeling of openness” and cause “irreparable” damage to several of their mature specimen trees. They also complained the extensions would eliminate the “dappled afternoon light” between the two homes.
At the time, Jane said: “If you choose to live in Georgetown, then you have to choose to live by historic-preservation rules. That’s just life in Georgetown.”
(Image: PA)
Budic’s gripes were that the proposed plans would be a let down to the visitors who “stand in awe” as they soak up the property’s façade which “had greeted presidents, heads of state and royalty”.
Each of the many plan revisions failed to gain board approval and were met with a new set of objections, and within the year, Ein had dropped half a million dollars on the project with nothing to show and the home continued to languish.
The Eins tried approaching the board once again in 2021, but failed to convince them. The couple never returned to the property again.
(Image: Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Speaking to The New York Times, Ein explained his reasons for giving up on the home. He said: “It was not about a neighbourhood that didn’t want us because they did en masse, and still do.
“It was more about insane inconsistency in a process where members of the historic board encouraged us to press forward, but then there’s no transparency or accountability.”
Lally Weymouth, daughter of the Grahams, had another view of why things went down as they did. She said: “Washington used to be a much easier place to live.
“[Now] everybody hates everybody.”
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