The Hungarian State bought a mansion in Washington for 16 million dollars

According to nol.hu, the prominent building, which stands only six blocks away from the White House, changed owners after 75 years. After the American Coatings Association it is time for the Hungarian embassy to move into the house.

Washington Business Journal writes that according to real estate record the Hungarian State paid 16,5 million dollars for the Brodhead-Bell-Morton court-house located at 1500 Rhode Island Avenue.

The former owner, American Coatings Association announced the sale of the 1858 m² building in 2014. The news have not yet been confirmed by the neither the Hungarian Embassy, nor the Association.

The Hungarian Embassy currently operates at the 3910 Shoemaker St. NW, in a 3122 m2 office building in the Cleveland Park. If they plan on moving to the newly bought house, it would mean a much more visible presence, six blocks away from the White House.

The 60-employee association was in need of a larger space. The building was constructed in Victorian style in 1879, for the Brodhead family. It was sold in 1882 to lawyer and financier Gardiner Green Hubbard, the father-in-law of telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell.

According to official records, the Hubbards “offered the house to the Bells as an inducement to relocate from the Boston area, and Bell allowed himself to be persuaded.”

Washington Business Journal also added that in 1889, the mansion was sold to Levi Parsons Morton, days before his inauguration as vice president under President Benjamin Harrison. Morton enlarged the building  immediately with a new east wing, designed by John Fraser, the home’s original architect.

During the 20^th century many illustrious figures of the American history and politics lived in the house. In 1912, John Russel Pope, the owner at that time, hired the designer of the Jefferson Monument to reconstruct the building in the style of historicism.  At the end of the construction work only a few bits of Fraser’s original plans were recognisable.

The American Coatings Association operated in the house since the December of 1993.

Photo: www.nol.hu

Copy editor: bm

Source: http://m.nol.hu/mozaik/