Two-unit condo building was once the laundry of choice for D.C. elites (2024)

The building, now divided into two condominium units, was constructed in 1918 to house the Louise Hand Laundry, whose name remains on the facade. The business was started in 1912 by Margaret Nicodemus, a widow who operated it for more than 30 years.

Beulah Hall, a Nebraska native and pioneering female life insurance agent, bought the property in 1943 and made it the laundry of choice for Washington’s elite. The techniques employed were traditional: Delicate items were shaken in a glass jar with soapy water, and the starch for men’s shirts was home-cooked.

The laundry’s customers included several embassies, the Smithsonian Institution and the White House. John Quincy Adams’s christening gown and a tablecloth that belonged to Napoleon are among the items cleaned for the Smithsonian, according to histories passed down by owners of the building. Bedspreads that belonged to George Washington were laundered for Mount Vernon. Administrations from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s to Dwight D. Eisenhower’s relied on the laundry. When John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, a stack of his clean shirts was awaiting pickup.

When Hall retired in 1977, architect Robert Lewis and artist Sanford Shapiro purchased the building and turned it into two residences. The condos — one on the ground level and one on the upper level — were open and airy, with glass-block walls and fireplaces. Lewis and Shapiro were known for hosting uproarious parties, inviting (or perhaps just allowing) more than 400 partygoers into the roughly 3,400 square feet of combined condo space. It was during this time that the basem*nt had a shower big enough for 12 people.

The building passed through several more owners before the Kahoes bought it during the Great Recession — a feat that Anna said required “moving heaven and Earth” (or, literally speaking, required selling their Mount Pleasant house and another property) as the economy crashed. The couple upgraded both condo units using a copy of Lewis’s blueprints that had been passed down from previous owners.

“When we find these rescue properties, we never want to remodel out of it what we fell in love with,” Anna said.

Anna and Dan lived in the lower of the two condos until 2011, when a dilapidated carriage house lured them to D.C.'s Blagden Alley historic district. They’ve since rented both units. But the laundry building is the “crown jewel” of their renovation work. They’re selling it now, she said, because she thinks that the property should be owner-occupied.

“No one owns the Louise Hand Laundry,” Anna said. “She’s just looking for her next steward.” The building is listed as two units, though it sold in the past as a pair. Details in both, including exposed interior brick walls, high cement ceilings and spiral staircases, point to its evolution as one of D.C.’s few residentially renovated industrial buildings.

The front door of Unit 1 opens to a bedroom with a full bathroom. The galley kitchen is next to the dining room, which has an alcove for a bar cart. There is a bedroom with an en suite bathroom, and a family room has built-in shelving and access to a patio. Another living area has a fireplace.

The door to Unit 2, accessed via a staircase on the side of the building, opens to the dining room and kitchen. The living room connects to one of the two bedrooms, a bathroom and a laundry room. The primary bedroom has an en suite bathroom and a spiral staircase that leads to a loft that is open to the bedroom below.

The basem*nt has a bonus room that Anna used as a closet but that Dan described as a “department store.” It has French brass clothing racks and a 360-degree dressing room-style mirror that will convey to the buyer.

The property includes assigned parking and an attached garage.

$1,575,000 for Unit 1; $1,275,000 for Unit 2