Quality Hill-Worthington House on Prospect Street for Sale at $11 Million

One of the most historic houses in Georgetown and Washington, D.C., is on the market, after it was sold 10 years ago by Sen. Clairborne Pell and his wife Nuala to Ralph and Nancy Taylor. The 3425 Prospect St., NW, Federal-style house sits on the northeast corner of Prospect and 35th Streets and was built in 1798. It is also significant because of its occupants, who were active in local and national affairs.

The gray two-story brick house is for sale for $11 million by agent Russell Firestone of TTR Sotheby’s International Reality, which confirmed the listing to the Georgetowner. The asking price — $11 million — is the same amount which nearby Halcyon House sold for in 2012.

While neighbors on Prospect Street may call it the Pell house, the 6,433-square-foot house was called Quality Hill by its first owner John Thomson Mason, nephew of one of America’s founding fathers, George Mason. Prominent physician Charles Worthington lived there for 25 years. His family also owned the Leonard Mackall House on 34th Street. For a time in the early 20th century, Albert Clemons, owner of Halcyon House, also owned Quality Hill and used it for storage. To the neighbors, it was known as the “haunted house.” In the 1940s, the house finally got electricity during a major renovation by Sir Willmott Lewis and Lady Norma Bowler Lewis. In 1961, she sold it to the Pells, who sold to the Taylors for $3.9 million in 2004. The Taylors had the house undergo a restoration and rehabilitation that reportedly cost as much as the selling price.

The house has eight bedrooms. Thomas Jefferson is said to have dined there. Arches in the center hallway supposedly came from the Francis Scott Key House on M Street. The house is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.