Even among the elite real estates in Washington, D.C.’s Kalorama district, where the Obamas resided after leaving the White House, there is one house that stands out. The Berman family home, with its neoclassical lines and taupe-and-cream color palette, is not only impressive from the exterior, but it also has a provenance unlike any other in the city.
The 8,000-square-foot estate was built in 1754 in Danvers, Massachusetts, and is the oldest home in D.C. “It was erected by Robert ‘King’ Hooper, a loyalist merchant, and eventually lent to General Gage, a British general and governor, who used it as his headquarters for roughly six months during the Revolutionary War,” explains novelist Alice Berman, who divides her time between her home in this town and her home in New York City. “Someone shot at him, and that’s how the musket hole wound up in the front door.”
Hooper eventually lost the house to creditors, and it was even converted into a girls’ boarding school at one point. “He demolished the paneled living room and sold it to a museum in Kansas,” says Israel Sack, a well-known antique trader.
Berman adds, “It always makes me laugh to think that our living room is identically copied somewhere.” George and Miriam Morris saved the house from demolition by dismantling it, numbering each component, and shipping it to Washington, D.C. via railcar in the 1930s. Berman continues, “They even wanted Mr. Sack to re-create the exact paneled living room he had sold.”
However, when Alice Berman’s parents, Wayne and Lea Berman, purchased the house around five years ago, it had fallen into disarray. “There was mold in every room,” Berman recounts, “beneath the floors and under the wallpaper.”
The makeover took nearly a year to complete, with the goal of preserving the home’s amazing heritage for future generations to enjoy. “It was very important to all of us to keep the house’s unique character while still making it modern and habitable,” Berman adds.
The end product is a mansion with amazing bones intricate crown molding, spacious foyers and landings that has been adapted for modern living. In the living room, for example, cream-colored paneled walls coexist with a sculpture by modern artist Louise Despont.
While Berman was supported by the designing firm Simon-Wallace Design on this room, Alice’s mother, Lea, was in charge of the remainder of the house. “We’ve always had a study, which is effectively our family room,” Berman explains. “Right down to the painting method on the walls and the green velvet couch, my mum decorates in the same way. That was one of the first rooms we completed because it is such an important part of our family it immediately makes you feel at ease.”
Berman has gotten a lot of inspiration for her writing from the home’s own tale. “It’s always intriguing to learn about the house’s past; the small bathrooms were once wig-powdering closets,” she explains. “And everyone who has lived there has meticulously documented it.” We were handed these binders containing old images of the property, lists of the people who had come, and the attendees of the various parties when we moved in.”
Menus and invitations saved by Miriam Morris, as well as a set of dining room chairs that had been passed down from owner to owner since the 1800s, are other priceless antiques. “I was just thinking, ‘How many Christmases have they had in this library?'” ‘How did you heat the house before?’ It reminds you that there was no central heating for a long time because it has so many fireplaces,” she says.
