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Coldwell Banker Lists The Textile Museum Properties for $22 Million

The property that was home to Washington, D.C.’s Textile Museum for decades is now on the market for $22 million. The Textile Museum is moving in 2014 and making available its 34,000 square feet of land area and nearly 27,000 square feet of historically landmarked buildings— one of which was designed as a residence by renowned architect John Russell Pope. Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage’s Sylvia Bergstrom, Marin Hagen and Joseph Zorc, all from the company’s Georgetown office, are representing the properties. 

The Textile Museum is joining with the George Washington University to become a cornerstone of a new museum scheduled to open in fall 2014 on GW’s Foggy Bottom campus.  With the move, one of the region’s most historic and desirable properties will become available.

“Opportunities such as the Textile Museum property seldom arise in the Washington regional market,” said Bergstrom. “To have such unique buildings designed by world-renowned architects, along with large and stunning grounds in the heart of Kalorama represents a once-in-a-generation—or possibly once-in-a-century—opportunity.  We are honored to be representing this unique and wonderful property.”

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The 2320 S Street property was commissioned by George Hewitt Myers, a prominent Washingtonian, forestry executive, and textile collector in 1912. Completed in 1915, the main entrance, display space and public rooms of the existing museum first functioned as the Myers’s family home.  The home was designed by John Russell Pope, designer of the Jefferson Memorial, the National Gallery of Art’s West Building and the National Archives, among his many other landmark achievements. Built in the Adam style, the mansion features a grand foyer with black and white marble floors and ground-floor rooms paneled in Italian Walnut, American Oak and cedar from Myers’s own timber mills.

Two years later, Myers purchased the adjacent residence, 2330 S St, designed by the prominent architect Waddy Butler Wood.  Wood also designed the building now known as the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the U.S. Department of Interior building, and other D.C. landmarks.

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In 1925, with his collection of 275 rugs and 60 related textiles, Myers opened the museum to the public. The properties and the large gardens behind each were eventually integrated, with major additional renovations in1979-1980. Since then, The Textile Museum has grown into one of the world's foremost specialized art museums, with a collection of more than 19,000 objects dating back to 3,000 B.C.E., rotating exhibitions, and roughly 25,000 visitors each year.

The two structures are connected by a second story limestone-faced bridge.  Together they total 27,000 square feet of floor space.  They open to nearly 7,000 square feet of garden, laid out formally in geographic designs and brick arcades with latticed arches. John Russell Pope planned the home with the garden in mind, and in the 1960s Washington D.C.’s first licensed female architect, Rose Greely, updated the design and completed the project.

“A valuable feature of this property is its versatility,” added Hagen. “It could become a magnificent home, as it was in the years the Myers family lived here, or I’m sure any country would be proud to have this site as an embassy or consulate.”

Joseph Zorc of Coldwell Banker notes the unique R-1-B zoning with a diplomatic overlay.  “This nearly ¾ acre site stretches a city block to Decatur Street with expansive city views and offers a rare potential to expand or add to the existing historic buildings to create a private urban compound, a satellite university campus, a private school, or other foreign mission uses.”

The Textile Museum’s move to GW will increase the museum’s exhibition space three-fold, and the new museum will include the acclaimed Textile Museum Shop and Arthur D. Jenkins Library for the Textile Arts. The museum’s collections—which have until now been housed entirely in these historic properties—will in the future be safeguarded in a collections and conservation resource center on the university’s Virginia Science and Technology campus. The Textile Museum will continue its regular visitor hours through October 13, 2013. Beginning October 14 through December 31, the TM Shop will be open on weekends, and the museum will close its public S Street offerings in 2014. 

Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, a leading residential real estate brokerage company in the Mid-Atlantic, operates approximately 40 offices with more than 2,000 sales associates serving the communities of the Greater Washington, D.C. Metro area, Maryland and Delaware. Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, www.cbmove.com, is part of NRT LLC, the nation’s largest residential real estate brokerage company. NRT, a subsidiary of Realogy Corporation, operates Realogy’s company-owned real estate brokerage offices.

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