REAL-ESTATE

Julia Child's DC home goes on the block

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON – The first home that famed American chef Julia Child ever owned — a four-bedroom in D.C.'s Georgetown neighborhood — is on the market for $1.1 million.

Known locally as the "Julia Child House," the 150-year-old wooden residence on Olive Street was built in 1870 by African-American carpenter Edgar Murphy. Child and her husband, Paul, whom she met while working at the Office of Strategic Services (a predecessor of the CIA), bought the home in 1948 and then promptly left for an extended assignment in Paris.

There, Child began her decades-long love affair with French food and studied at Le Cordon Bleu. Fans of the Nora Ephron film "Julie and Julia" will remember this period in Child's life as the absolute best part of the movie.

The couple returned to Washington in 1956, and the budding culinary legend gave the home's kitchen a HGTV-worthy remodel, with a new commercial-grade gas range stove, dishwasher and garbage disposal. After the redo, Child's lucky neighbors were treated to French cooking lessons.

But those soufflé days would be short-lived. In 1959, after Paul's retirement, the Childs left Washington for Cambridge, Massachusetts. And that fancy stove went with them.

Today, the "Julia Child House," which was previously rented at about $4,400 a month, is described as a bit of fixer-upper. Or in real estate parlance: "Great bones!"