Best Transformation of the Year: LeDroit Park Mansion Comes Back to Life

• December 21st 2011

by Shilpi Paul

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Here at UrbanTurf, we love imagining how DC’s crumbling houses can be brought back to life. So when this LeDroit Park Victorian was put up for sale in August, we couldn’t get enough of the history of the transformation.

Finally condemned in 2006 after falling into disrepair over a period of decades, the five-bedroom home was renovated from top to bottom by contractor Albarth Molina. In the before pictures, the house looks like it’s suffering from leprosy. Walls are deteriorating, ceilings are eaten away, and the windows are busted or boarded up.

Molina touched every inch of the 2,800 square-foot home, building up the structure, renovating the kitchen and bathroom, and salvaging some original details, including pocket doors, mantles and trim on the main level, as well as the staircase and railing. The HVAC system was replaced, the loft-like great room was opened up on the third floor, and there is now a separately metered one-bedroom unit on the lower level.

In 1889, a physician named Thomas B. Campbell built the original home for just $5,000. It re-entered the market in August at just north of $1 million. Commenters were wowed by the property, but perhaps the price is still a little too high for potential buyers. As of today, it’s still on the market.

More information and before and after photos below.

• Full Listing: 1873 3rd Street NW (map)
• Price: $1.099 million
• Bedrooms: Five
• Bathrooms: 4.5
• Listing Agent: Fred Bates, DC Real Estate

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.production.logicbrush.com/articles/blog/best_transformation_of_the_year_ledroit_park/4808.