High-end homes change hands in Georgetown, Chevy Chase, and McLean.
By Mary K. Mewborn
The District
In 1940, diplomat Robert Woods Bliss and his wife Mildred left “Dumbarton Oaks,” their Federal-style Georgetown mansion and spectacular Beatrix Farrand-designed gardens to Harvard University. Four years later the estate become internationally renowned as the site of the conference where the United Nations was created. Now Harvard’s trustees have purchased 3104 R Street NW, across the street from the famed conference center and its adjacent museum, with plans to use it to house scholars and researchers “on a temporary, very short-term basis.” The four-bedroom, three-bath, 2,928-square-foot house built in 1900, was priced at $2.2 million by the seller Piritta Sorsa, a Ph.D. in economics who has worked for international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.