What was once a school for “fashionable” young women and later a Civil War hospital is now a prime piece of Georgetown real estate looking for a buyer to turn it into luxury condos. The price tag for the empty building: $14 million.
The 25,000-plus-square-foot property at 1305-1315 30th Street NW was built in the 1820s as Miss Lydia English’s Georgetown Female Seminary, a finishing school for the daughters of well-to-do types and notable names of the era including, reportedly, 17th president Andrew Johnson. After Union forces were defeated at the Battle of Bull Run, the building was converted into a military hospital, and poet Walt Whitman served as a volunteer nurse there. In 1865, after the war, it was turned into apartments. And yes, there are rumors of ghosts in the laundry room, which reportedly served as the hospital’s mortuary.
In 2019, developer Golden Eagle Group took over the property. It has three interconnected structures and is approved for 18 condo units with 16 parking spaces. If the property doesn’t sell during the limited window it’s on the market to the public, the developer plans to take on the condo project itself.
The property is represented by Robert Hryniewicki, Adam Rackliffe, and Christopher Leary of HRL Partners, and Nathan Guggenheim and Anne Savage at Washington Fine Properties.
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind D.C.’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.
