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Family Properties Oatsie Charles’ Georgetown mansion changes hands again just as her grandson settles in a few blocks away BY MARY K. MEWBORN
THE DISTRICT The Dougal House, the former Georgetown home of grande dame Marion ‘Oatsie’ Leiter Charles located at R STREET NW, has sold for the second time in little more than a year. Last October, Mrs. Charles sold it for $7 million, but buyer Christian Hunt soon put it back on the market at $7.4 million with listing agent Jeff Mauer with Coldwell Banker. The second buyer, who paid $6.5 million and wishes to remain anonymous, was represented by Ellen Morrell and Matt McCormick of Washington Fine Properties. With the witty Mrs. Charles as its consummate châtelaine and hostess, the magnificent 1857 Italianate-style residence welcomed such illustrious guests as Ian Fleming, Noël Coward, and Princess Michael of eKnt to its embassy-size rooms. The meticulously maintained private grounds feature ponds, a guesthouse, meditation garden, and a large garage. Just as Mrs. Charles’ famous Georgetown landmark was about to change hands, her grandson, Associated Press reporter Desmond Oates Butler, and Miriam Mahlow, bought a three-bedroom, circa 1900 Georgetown house at DUMBARTON STREET NW from Benjamin B. and Georgia K. King for $1.23 million. Butler’s father, George Butler, was codirector of the all-time classic bodybuilding documentary Pumping Iron, the movie that made Arnold Schwarzenegger famous. His mother, V ictoria Leiter Mele, is the grandniece of iVctoria Mary Leiter, the Chicago department store heiress who married Lord Curzon, a 19thcentury British viceroy of India. Both Desmond Butler’s mother and grandmother now live in Newport, R.I., on the former estate of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edith Wharton, amid gardens originally designed by Beatrix Ferrand, the landscape architect who designed the
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Philanthropist Paul Mellon’s Embassy Row house (top) and grande dame Oatsie Charles’ Georgetown mansion (above) have both been sold to new owners for the second time in recent years.
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