Mansion Global

Home Where Jackie and John Kennedy First Met to Hit Market

The Washington, D.C., house will ask $1.725 million

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The brick house has doubled in size through renovations since the blind date that brought Jackie Bouvier and John F. Kennedy together.

TTR Sotheby's International Realty
The brick house has doubled in size through renovations since the blind date that brought Jackie Bouvier and John F. Kennedy together.
TTR Sotheby's International Realty

The Washington, D.C., townhouse where future U.S. president and first lady John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier first met will hit the market on Thursday for the first time in more than three decades for $1.725 million.

In the spring of 1951, journalist Charles Bartlett and his wife, Martha, played matchmaker by inviting then-Congressman Kennedy and Bouvier to a brick townhouse they rented on Q Street in Georgetown for an intimate dinner party.

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"I remember we had cocktails in the garden and dinner inside," Bartlett wrote in a letter viewed by Mansion Global to the current owner in 1989, shortly after they purchased the rowhouse.

Bouvier, a 19-year-old New York socialite attending George Washington University, sipped on an old fashioned and the cook served chicken casserole with peas and rice, according to Edward Klein’s 1996 biography of the couple "All Too Human."

The home, built in 1895, has undergone a number of renovations, including a major update in 1956 that nearly doubled its footprint. In his letter, Bartlett recalled the intimacy of the evening due, in part, to the small size of the home.

"The house was of course half the size of your present house and so it was a very cozy gathering of eight or so people," Bartlett wrote in the letter. The Pulitzer-winning journalist died one year ago at the age of 95.

A letterfrom the former first lady’s assistant in 1988 also confirms the home is where Kennedy and Bouvier first met.

Today, the home spans nearly 2,000 square feet, including a modern gourmet kitchen, three bedrooms and three bathrooms.

The backyard where the fated blind date began is paved with flagstone and has an outdoor firepit, according to the listing with Michael Brennan Jr. of TTR Sotheby's International Realty.

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The rowhouse has attracted considerable interest ahead of the listing on Thursday, with many buyers and fellow brokers asking about the property’s history, said Jessica Brosey, a sales associate with Mr. Brennan.

The home still retains some of its period details, such as hardwood floors and a wood-burning fireplace in the living room.

The Washington Post first reported the listing.