In 1957, Jacqueline and John F. Kennedy spent $82,000 on a Federal-style townhouse in Washington, D.C., according to Donald Spoto’s book, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: A Life. John was the dashing junior senator from Massachusetts at the time, and it was the couple’s first home in the nation’s capital. Jackie reportedly spent $18,000 on a remodel that included Louis XV-era armchairs and porcelain, plus antique dining chairs and carpets.

Located in Georgetown, the red-brick residence was built in 1811 for William Marbury, one of the so-called midnight judges appointed by outgoing Federalist President John Adams in the final days of his term in 1801. Marbury is best known for his role in Marbury v. Madison, the first case in which the Supreme Court invalidated a law passed by Congress.

Both Caroline Kennedy and the late John F. Kennedy Jr. were born while the family lived there. In fact, JFK Jr. was born near the end of the home’s final year as an informal campaign headquarters for his father during the 1960 presidential election, which John F. Kennedy ultimately won. On the day of his 1961 inauguration, the family was photographed departing the N Street residence and President Kennedy and the First Lady sold the roughly 6,000-square-foot home shortly after moving into the White House.

Although the three-story home, with five bedrooms, six fireplaces, and a library, has been updated over the decades, many of its original details and sense of elegance remain intact. The double parlor on the first floor, for example, is still the inviting space where JFK met with members of his cabinet and where Jackie hosted “political teas” and other intimate gatherings, according to press materials.

The sellers, retired financial analyst Vincent Griski and his partner, Cameron Knight, a social worker who aided in developing mental health programs for the U.S. Army, were aware of the townhouse’s ties to the Kennedys, but that didn’t sway them to buy it. Knight grew up nearby. His grandfather, Ridgway B. Knight, was a French-born diplomat under presidents Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, and the residence had been owned by a series of his family’s friends, including Tila Hancock, who sold it to the couple for $3.35 million in 2004, according to property records.

“We lived around the corner and we’d walk by and Tila would say, ‘Oh Cameron, when are you going to buy my house’,” Knight shared with the Wall Street Journal. After moving in, they made subtle updates to the home, like opening a fireplace that had been closed up and installing period-appropriate mantles in the drawing room. “When you’re in the house, you’re aware that you’re in a piece of history,” he adds. Outside, the garden was elevated by replacing traditional English boxwood hedges with new plantings, including dogwood trees, and creating multiple outdoor spaces for dining and lounging.

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The couple decided to sell now that their two children are grown and headlines swirled when the home hit the market in October 2025 for $7.5 million. The JFK Library and Museum in Boston reportedly called and said they would be happy to accept the house as a donation. Knight declined. “I was like, ‘Over my dead body. You can buy it from me.’”  It has now sold for $6.12 million—about $1.4 million below the original asking price.

Michael Rankin of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty held the listing, while the buyer was represented by Kelly Garret, also of TTR Sotheby’s, who tells Mansion Global that “my clients loved all of the light, elegance and, of course, the garden.”

Click here for more photos of the historic residence.