Sally Shelton-Colby thought her first Spring Valley home had a major flaw: its proximity to Northwest Washington’s noisy Turtle Park. When she decided to move, “tranquility and privacy” became her mantra.
Now the five-bedroom, four-bathroom stone house, built in 1938 and including a separate lower-level residential unit, is on the market again, for $1,999,000 this time.
Shelton-Colby, a professor at American University, was U.S. ambassador to Grenada and Barbados during the Carter administration. She was an assistant administrator of the Agency for International Development in the Clinton administration. She was married to William Colby, the former CIA director, who died in 1996.
That’s not the house’s only tie to the CIA. A previous owner was an architect who worked for the agency and added a hidden safe room. Shelton-Colby won’t say where it is in the house.
“I know where it is, and I’ll tell the new owners,” she said. “I just feel it should continue to be a safe room, in case they need it.”
For most of the time Shelton-Colby lived in the house, she was renovating it. “You could not pay me to buy something that didn’t need to be Sally-ized,” she said. For starters, the dark brown dining room was painted white, and all 39 windows were replaced. All four bathrooms were updated, and one now has black, white and gray mosaic tiles. Shelton-Colby called that her favorite room in the house.
She renovated the kitchen, which was decades behind the times, and replaced the 1950s banister to the second floor with a glass banister. The finished lower level — formerly the studio of Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ginny Durrin, who sold the property to Shelton-Colby — was divided into laundry and exercise rooms on one side and the in-law suite on the other. Shelton-Colby rented the in-law suite to university students.
A stone path leads to a yellow front door under a portico. The foyer inside leads to a stairway and is flanked by a study/bedroom and a living room. The study/bedroom has a fireplace and an en suite bathroom. The living room has built-in shelves and a fireplace. Beyond the living room, the dining room — which Shelton-Colby used as a sitting room — leads to a sunroom with large windows and stone walls painted white. The kitchen has rounded windows that look out on the backyard.
On the second level, the primary bedroom has a vaulted ceiling, two closets and en suite bathroom with a separate tub and shower. Two more bedrooms on this level, also with vaulted ceilings, have built-in shelves and share a hall bathroom.
The in-law suite on the lower level has a family or recreation room, a laundry, a full bathroom, a bedroom and a kitchenette. The other part of the lower level has storage, a laundry and an exercise room. Also on this level is a two-car garage, and the driveway provides additional off-street parking.
Off the sunroom, a flagstone patio leads to a landscaped brick patio. A smaller terrace off the kitchen has room for a table and chairs. The property, about a quarter-acre, has trees and other perennial plants.
“There’s a magnolia tree, which is about three stories tall, and just this magnificent backyard,” Shelton-Colby said. “I got my tranquility and privacy.”
$1,999,000
- Bedrooms/bathrooms: 5/4
- Approximate square-footage: 3,900
- Lot size: 0.24 acre
- Features: This 1938 stone house has two patios, a terrace and a stone path through the landscaped backyard. The house was renovated from 2018 to 2024, including updates to the kitchen, the bathrooms and the primary bedroom suite. The lower level has an in-law suite. The garage has two parking spots, and the driveway provides more off-street parking.
- Listing agent: Jean Hanan, Washington Fine Properties
