History

Presidents Lived Here

President Ronald Reagan lived at 1326 Londonderry View Drive in 1930 during his first marriage with Jane Wyman. Noted Washington Post President Reagan named the building Fort Londonderry during the time a second apartment was used as a nursery for his daughter Maureen. Later Reagan again relocated back to the Londonderry View property during the 50’s with second wife, Nancy Reagan.

520 N. Rossmore – The Mauretania, was residence to President John F. Kennedy during the Democratic Convention of 1960.  During that summer, Senator John F. Kennedy rented the penthouse apartment from the Haleys during the Democratic National Convention.  In addition to its convenient location, near the Biltmore Hotel, headquarters of the Democratic National Committee delegates, and the Sports Arena, site of the convention, it was private enough so Kennedy could have some seclusion.   Decades later, when restoring one of the kitchens in the building, Goldstein found a yellowed newspaper clipping from 1960, describing how JFK eluded the press who had discovered his hideaway, to go swimming at Marion Davies’ beach house by climbing down the penthouse fire escape.