Georgetown Long and Foster’s Terri Robinson, who represented the buyer, and Margot Wilson of Arnold Bradley Davy Sargent and Chew, who represented the seller, have helped sell 4819 Indian Lane NW in Spring Valley for $5.6 million. The 5,716-square-foot, three-story manse with eight bedrooms and six and a half baths was built in 1941 and had been home to Mr. and Mrs. David Castiel, president, CEO and founder of Ellipso Inc., a satellite communications company whose shareholders include Boeing and Israel Aircraft. The property was built in 1939 by Clarence Gosnell, the patriarch of a now third-generation family business, Gosnell Properties.
Viola Wentzel has sold her six-bedroom, red brick row house at 2204 Kalorama Road NW, across from the French ambassador’s residence and a few doors down from the home of former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, thanks to Washington Fine Properties’ realtors Bobbie Brewster, who listed it for $2.8 million, and Jim Bell, who brought the buyers, Andrew and Lynn Volmer, to the table. Wentzel is the daughter of the late Kurt Kiesinger, who served as chancellor of West Germany from 1966 to 1969. She is also the widow of National Geographic photographer Volkmar Wentzel and co-author of the soon-to-be-released Random House publication entitled, Odysseys and Photographs: Four National Geographic Field Men. It chronicles her husband’s career, which took off in the 1930s when he published moody images of Washington by night. After World War II, one of his initial assignments took him to the Indian sub-continent where the photographs and motion pictures he shot were among the last to capture the lavish splendor of the British Raj and among the first to highlight the then little-known Himalayan kingdom of Nepal. With a camera as his passport to the world, he documented foreign cultures for nearly half a century and his legendary work has been displayed in major galleries around the globe.
MARYLAND
In Chevy Chase, healthcare policy consultants Marion and Lawrence Lewin have purchased unit #1103 in Somerset House II, located at 5610 Wisconsin Avenue. The sellers were attorney Dianne Felton and Reginald Felton, director of federal relations for the National School Boards Association. The Feltons received $2,450,000, or $900,000 more than they originally paid four years ago for the 3,021-square-foot luxury condominium with two bedrooms and a den. Long and Foster’s Zelda Heller served as both the listing and selling agent in 2004 and again in this most recent transaction.
VIRGINIA
Bill and Patricia Melton now own 1003 Crest Lane in McLean, having paid $5,725,000 for the 2.3-acre Hugh Newell Jacobsen-designed Potomac waterfront contemporary. In 1981, Bill Melton founded VeriFone, the company that put credit card authorization terminals on retail counters throughout the planet. He is also the founder of CyberCash. His wife is a poet, playwright and photographer as well as the founder, former executive director and board chairman of Peace X Peace, an international nonprofit group that utilizes the Internet to connect women of all cultures. The couples’ new home boasts floor-to-ceiling windows in the living and dining rooms and four bedrooms opening onto the pool deck. Extras include a media room with a retractable movie screen, four wood-burning fireplaces and an elevator. The architecturally unique house was built in 1981 and had belonged to Barry E Appelman, the chief technology officer of America Online and the man responsible for launching AOL Instant Messenger in 1994. The Fairfax County property was listed for $6.5 million by Salley Widmayer and Cynthia Howar.
CBS News 60 Minutes correspondent and Emmy-award-winning journalist Scott Pelley and his wife Jane have sold their five-acre residence at 804 Great Cumberland Road in McLean for $3,250,000 Built in 1978, it was renovated and expanded under Jane Pelly’s supervision and now features a two-story glass “screening room” as well as a custom-paneled library, a heated pool with a spa and waterfall, an outdoor stone fireplace, gazebo and tennis court. The new owner is Brian Camastral, Latin America regional president for Mars Inc., the candy conglomerate and the metropolitan area’s largest privately owned business. Patricia Derwinski of Weichert Realtors was the selling agent. Weichert Realtors’ Sue Huckaby and Karen Briscoe with the Huckaby Briscoe Group represented the Pelleys, who now live in Darien, Conn.
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