Across from the Russian Embassy, D.C.’s ‘spy house’ hits the market

Officially, the house at 2619 Wisconsin Ave. NW was built in 1935, occupied for five decades by a nice family of Italian immigrants and their descendants, and leased to tenants in the late 1980s. Officially, it’s a coincidence that those tenants rotated in and out of the house in eight-hour shifts. It’s also a coincidence, officially, that those tenants moved in just as the Embassy of Russia was completed across the street.

Of course, neighbors didn’t buy the official story. The local lore, according to reporting by the Washingtonian, is that the house in Glover Park was used for decades by the FBI to visually survey (and probably collect electronic signals from) the Russian Embassy, starting around 1990. The story recounted how neighbors spotted cameras through the tinted windows, pointing toward the embassy.

For the last decade or so, the house was vacant. Joey Yaffe, CEO of real estate developer NewCity, heard about the house in 2023 from the owners’ agent. After about 90 years of ownership and the original family’s unsuccessful attempt to turn the property into a memory care facility, they were ready to sell.

Yaffe bought the house in 2024. Save for a somewhat suspicious amount of abandoned office furniture, it was unassuming — no leftover laser microphones, X-ray scanners or other hints of cloak-and-dagger operations.

“You could almost imagine that they were set up there from their observation post in that front room on the third floor, kind of manning the cameras,” he said. “The rest of it kind of just looked like a house, and it was from the ’30s, so it was an old house.”

The renovation, which began in January and was completed in the last month, demolished most of the existing structure; the only original parts of the house remaining are the masonry walls, slate roof, joists and most of the floor system. “Everything is new except for the outside envelope,” Yaffe said.

The house has a few references to the property’s legend. On the main level, a powder room is hidden under a staircase and accessed by pushing on a framed artwork. In the primary suite, doorframes blend into moldings to create the appearance of a doorless bedroom. Those two architectural gabs point to the “spy house” history, but Yaffe considered the house’s previous life, too.

“As much as everybody thinks of it as the D.C. spy house, the truth is, it spent twice as much time as this beloved family home,” Yaffe said.

Yaffe said one of the previous owners recounted how his grandfather (who built the house in 1935) used to make wine under the porch. So Yaffe added a 1940s-style wine cellar in the same spot. Of course, it’s also hidden behind a bookcase.

The main section of the house has five bedrooms and six bathrooms and, together with a separate apartment over the detached garage, totals about 4,800 square feet. The main floor has white oak herringbone floors and nine-foot ceilings. A quartz fireplace, wet bar and built-in shelving punctuate the living room. The dining area is designated by a statement chandelier. A 30-foot wall of glass on the rear of the house overlooks the backyard. The kitchen has two-tone cabinetry, Cristallo quartzite counters and a custom hood.

On the second floor, the primary suite has two walk-in closets and an en suite bathroom with quartz floors. That floor has another bedroom with an en suite bathroom. The third floor has two more bedrooms.

The lower level has a media space with a wet bar, guest suite, mudroom, laundry room and wine cellar. It opens to the flagstone patio, where the one-bedroom apartment and main house share an elevated walkway. The accessory dwelling unit has a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room.

Yaffe said the historical intrigue is a selling point in its own right.

“It’s not like something bad ever happened there,” he said. “It’s just kind of a cool place where men sat and stared out the window for 30 years.”

$3,850,000

2619 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Washington