The Watergate, photographed during the fall of 1965, initially featured efficiencies for $17,600 and penthouses for $200,000.
Sure, this building spawned a scandal, but, man, those views, amenities and all the pretty people hanging out made it downright legendary—and prime real estate.
At the height of The Watergate’s real estate fame—a time when so many members of the Nixon administration lived there it was dubbed the Republican Bastille—thesix buildings on 10 acres in Foggy Bottom represented the quintessential power address. Constructed between 1963 and 1971, The Watergate was DC’s first mixed-use development, with 238 residences (initially fetching $17,600 for efficiencies to $200,000 for penthouses—John Mitchell later paid $325,000 for a three-bedroom duplex when he was Nixon’s attorney general), a swank European-style hotel with a staff that spoke 23 languages, commercial space (where the Democratic National Committee had its headquarters, prompting a little break-in) and boutiques like Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. The grounds, designed by renowned landscape architect Boris Timchenko, featured rooftop terraces, swimming pools and a 7-acre park. Elizabeth Taylor and Sen. John Warner lived at the Watergate during their marriage (1976 to 1982). Other residents included Plácido Domingo, Caspar Weinberger, Clare Boothe Luce, Alfred Bloomingdale, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and even Monica Lewinsky, who lived at the address briefly with her mother. While the hotel has regained its glory, most of the residential stars are gone. Still, condos fetch up to $4 million, proving a real estate maxim: Location still matters.