It’s not the White House, but it sure is a nice house.
The Washington, DC home of Bill Plante, who served as a CBS News White House correspondent for four administrations and entertained storied journalists and the politicians they covered for dozens of dinner parties, has listed for $3.5 million.
Plante and his wife, the Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Robin Smith, brought together elected officials from both sides of the aisle like Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Ronald Reagan’s deputy chief of staff Michael Deaver.
They mingled with journalists like Sam Donaldson, Andrea Mitchell and Lesley Stahl at the couple’s Georgetown residence, a rare detached home in the neighborhood of historic rowhouses.
“We’d have the whole ’60 Minutes’ crowd when they were in town,” Smith said.
Plante, who also anchored “CBS Sunday Night News” for seven years, died in 2022 at age 84. Smith is relocating from a block in which journalist Bob Woodward lives across the street and the Atlantic humor writer Alexandra Petri lives a few doors down.
Plante and Smith bought the three-story, four-bedroom, four-bath Italianate-style house, built in 1900, at 3034 Q St. NW in 1987 for $435,000.
Smith recalls that Plante was reluctant to leave their nearby Georgetown condo, but was sold when he discovered the small south-facing garden, which they renovated and professionally landscaped, adding a flagstone patio and a water feature.
“For me, adding that terrace in the back was a life changer because it’s like a whole other room,” said Smith, who founded the nonprofit production company Video/Action and has had films broadcast on PBS, including a documentary on civil rights activist and congressman John Lewis.
Bay windows front the street and jut from the side of the 2,900-square-foot tan brick house, bringing in light that flows from the living room all the way to the glass-walled two-story addition that Smith and Plante built onto the back of the house. The first floor of it serves as a breakfast room overlooking the terrace, while a primary-bedroom sitting room is above.
A large dining room abuts the living room, which can be separated with pocket doors. Both rooms have fireplaces.
Beyond that stands a kitchen with Viking and Sub-Zero appliances, a coffee bar, a wine fridge, dual dishwashers, a professional-grade designer Cheng vent hood and contemporary European-style flat-panel wood cabinets.
“We were entertaining at a time where you could bring Republicans and Democrats to the table at the same time,” Smith said. “And because my husband’s job was to cover the White House, beginning with the Reagan administration in the ’80s all the way through the Obama administration, we had a lot of different administrations, a lot of different people who were just really fun to be able to sit down with informally.”
Compass real estate agent Tricia Messerschmitt was a guest at some of the dinners and remembers that 20 people could be seated in the dining room.
Those parties were lubricated with wine from a climate-controlled wine cellar with room for 1,200 bottles. Plante, dubbed the “sommelier to the White house press corps,” was known for having one of Washington’s best wine collections. The fully finished walk-out basement also contains a bedroom, a bathroom, a rec room, laundry and storage.
Upstairs, the primary suite features a full wall of windows in the sitting room, along with a bathroom with rose-toned marble and a soaking tub. Two other bedrooms, one with a bay window, and another bathroom round out this floor. Above that is a partial stand-up attic with porthole windows.
In addition to its well-known neighbors, the house is next door to a brick church with large stained glass windows that was constructed in 1907. It initially housed a Methodist church, but since 1960 has been home to the Church of Two Worlds, which bills itself as a “beacon for spiritualism in the nation’s capital.” It uses mediums to try to contact the deceased as well as healers for parishioners. A flyer on the door announces “psychic Sundays” once a month.
“They’re a pretty good, quiet neighbor,” said Smith.
Back next door, Messerschmitt notes the house bridges several styles of its own. She notes, “I consider the house to be very comfortable. It’s nice, but not too fancy. It’s modern, but not too sleek. It’s got a lot that appeals.”
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