A two-bedroom penthouse inside a converted 1897 Gothic Revival church on Capitol Hill has hit the market for $1.667 million, and the price tag comes with something few D.C. condos can offer: private ownership of the building's own bell tower, which rises more than 80 feet above the street. The unit sits atop The Sanctuary, a 30-condo conversion at 819 D Street NE, and includes 33-foot ceilings, a stained-glass window pulled from the church's original sanctuary, and a stairway leading up into the tower itself.
The penthouse listing was covered by The Business Journals. According to the property listing on cathyrealtor.com, the home has two bedrooms, two full bathrooms and a half bath, spread across more than 2,000 finished square feet. The listing also describes a den with panoramic 360-degree views from the tower, a separate office, and a living room anchored by the church's original stained-glass window from the main sanctuary.
A Bell Tower Of One's Own
Beyond the views, the building is pet-friendly and has an elevator. Descriptions of the bell tower's height differ: architecture firm Bonstra Haresign Architects, which led the conversion, describes it as an 85-foot bell tower that soars above the neighborhood, while a 2016 Washingtonian account put the structure at 84 feet tall.
The building itself dates to 1897 and was reshaped into 30 residential condominiums across three structures, the church and two adjacent townhouses, totaling 34,693 square feet of gross floor area, according to Bonstra Haresign's project materials. The firm says its team worked to preserve the original stained and leaded glass windows throughout the conversion, a detail that shows up directly in the penthouse's living room centerpiece.
How The Price Compares To Past Sales
This isn't the first time The Sanctuary's top unit has changed hands at a premium. Building Design + Construction previously reported that the same penthouse, then listed as two bedrooms and 2.5 baths, sold for $1.525 million.
The building's popularity when it first hit the market was notable in its own right. Bisnow reported that more than 75% of the units were under contract before construction on the conversion was even finished.
Part Of A Broader Church-Conversion Trend
Bonstra Haresign frames The Sanctuary as part of a broader pattern in the District, describing the project as having helped ignite a burgeoning trend in D.C. of church-to-residential conversions. Building Design + Construction similarly characterized the building as potentially representing the vanguard of a new trend in Washington toward turning aging churches into housing.
