By Anthony Paletta
Two vital eras of American history intertwine at 3307 N Street NW in Washington DC. Marbury House was built in 1811 in federal style for William Marbury — known for his role in establishing the principle of judicial review. The spotlight returned in 1957 when then-Senator John F Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline bought the house, where they lived until they moved again — this time into the White House.
Five-bedroom Marbury House — currently on the market for $7.5mn — was described by Jackie Kennedy as “the perfect place”. She redecorated many times during her years there. According to Donald Spoto’s Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: A Life, she “had the floors painted in a white-and-green design, chose Louis XV armchairs and porcelains, Louis XVI dining chairs, and an antique carpet — it was as if Madame de Récamier was returning after exile.” The details were important. The house played host to frequent political gatherings during her husband’s tenure in the Senate and presidential campaign. John Kennedy Jr was also born when they were living there.
Cameron Knight, the current owner who bought the house in 2004, was startled to find such a well-preserved standalone federal-style house. “With the exception of some of the house-museum homes in Georgetown, few survive without multiple, major-campaigns of alterations over the past 200 plus years. Some acquire Victorian facades, others Italianate embellishments. I have never known how and why Marbury House remained so untouched?”
The three-storey house retains elementary federal elegance. The facade is composed largely of red brick but with select ornamentation: keystone-centred lintels, a fanlight window above the door, sash windows with green shutters, and a corbelled cornice.
Federal-style houses tend to shrink in floor height as they rise; this is an exception. Marbury, a very prosperous banker and businessman, wanted more, Knight explains. He “insisted on the tall ceilings on all three primary floors with large windows on three sides”. The house features well-proportioned social spaces flowing into one another, unlike many federal homes, which were built to cordon smaller rooms off from drafts.
Some minor improvements have been made, largely to the kitchen and the bathrooms. “I remain firm to preferring bathrooms to chamber pots and modern stoves to cooking-fireplaces,” Knight jokes. But some historical treasures remain; there still is a cooking fireplace concealed within a wall should a new owner want to embrace authentic methods.
The garden was another thing that appealed when Knight found the property. Some shifts in planting were necessary. Magnolia trees along the property line were replaced with English hornbeams, pruned to provide privacy. “As traditional English boxwood gardens now struggle in our region, boxwood variants have replaced the older varieties for durability and hardiness.” He continues, “I added the parking pad and brick wall with the fountain, but the basic bones of the garden remain similar to how it has been for as long as my parents and grandparents can remember.”
The house carries with it a sense of history. “Only on leaving Marbury House have I realised the perspective that my tenancy of 21 years is a mere peppercorn within the scope of hundreds of years of more significant residents — who frankly shaped our nation.”
Photography: Townsend Visuals/TTR Sotheby's International Realty; The Estate of Jacques Lowe/Getty Images
