Julia Child’s ‘little jewel’ lists in DC for $3.5M. See inside home fit for a chef
She was one of the most iconic chefs in the world and beloved by people everywhere, and now an important piece of Julia Child’s history has hit the real estate market in Washington, D.C.
The Georgetown townhouse of the “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” author — yes, the very home where she penned the famous book, according to the listing on Realtor.com — has listed for $3.5 million.
Child affectionately called the three-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom home “her little jewel,” and it has since been beautifully restored by the current owner Rory Veevers-Carter, who purchased the house in 2015, The Washington Post reported.
“When I first purchased it, there were plants growing inside the walls, actually protruding out from the walls inside the house,” Veevers-Carter told the Post. “There were certainly lots of entries into the structure of the house for rodents. . . . It got to the stage where nobody had bothered to do anything for the last 10 years.”
Fans can take a look back at Veevers-Carter’s restoration journey of the home on Instagram, where the owner made an account @JewelOnOlive to follow the project.
According to the Post, the home was originally built in 1869 by Edgar Murphy, a Black carpenter who lived in the house with his family until his passing in 1908.
“It’s one of the few houses left after gentrification turned the area [that was] owned by a Black family,” Veevers-Carter told the Post.
Child and her husband bought the home in 1948, but they really didn’t fully start their lives in the home until they returned from France in the 1950s.
“During her ownership, Child delighted in offering cooking classes to DCs social set who learned how to perfect poached eggs and sauteed chicken from one of the most luminous figures in food,” the listing details.
Child even brought in architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen, who designed Jackie Kennedy Onassis’ Martha’s Vineyard house, to remodel the 3,150 square-foot place in the 1970s, Town and Country magazine said.
Today, the house comes with many high-end touches and a fresh, clean look thanks to Veevers-Carter, with amenities that include:
Beautiful exposed brick and beams
Working fireplace
Floating staircase
Chef’s kitchen (of course)
Wooden hearth
Also included in the house is the original kitchen wall from Child’s kitchen, encased in glass, the listing says.
Child hit fame after she adapted complex French cuisine for Americans after collaborating with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle on the two-volume “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” cookbook in 1961, Biography said. She went on to pen more bestsellers and had high-rated television specials. She died in 2004 from kidney failure.
This story was originally published December 7, 2021 at 7:40 PM with the headline "Julia Child’s ‘little jewel’ lists in DC for $3.5M. See inside home fit for a chef."