A mysterious Chesapeake Bay island once used as a brothel has hit the market for $2.1 million.
Known as Tippity Wichity Island — a 90-minute drive from Washington D.C. — the 5-acre enclave is known for its shady, yet colorful past.
The current owners, Gail and John Harmon, told Insider they believed the island served as a brothel after the Civil War and was operated by a soldier named Capt. Henry Howgate.
Records show Howgate was one of the first residents of Tippity Wichity Island, according to the listing from Sotheby’s. The listing adds Howgate purchased it in 1879.
Howgate had a lengthy rap sheet, which included convictions for fraud and embezzlement, according to an article published in 1895 by The News.
Meanwhile, the Harmons purchased the island as a timeshare in the 1970s for $125,000, when they and another couple saw an ad in the classified section of a local newspaper, the Washingtonian. The Harmons had been on the hunt for a vacation home by the water when they moved to Washington for a military commitment at the time, they said.
The ad caught their eye, which included a quote from William Shakespeare’s play, “Richard II,” that read: “This other Eden, demi-paradise, This fortress built by Nature for herself.”
“[We] were blown away by how wonderful it was,” Gail Harmon said of the first time they visited the island.
For 30 years, the two couples alternated weekends — until the other pair decided to sell their share to the Harmons nearly a decade ago, they told Insider.
Before its use as a vacation retreat, it had an entirely different purpose.
Passing Tippity Wichity Island on a Potomac River cruise in 2017, Jody Argo Schroath, an editor of Chesapeake Bay Magazine, reported how locals believed the name suggests a bordello was built on the island after the Civil War.
“It’s a corruption of the name ‘Tippling and Witchery Island,’ named for a house of ill-repute located there following the Civil War,” Schroath wrote in the column.
Meanwhile, a friend told Gail that the island could have also served as an illegal distillery during the Prohibition Area in the 1920s. The friend revealed that their father would import casks of whiskey to the island during that period.
“It was a perfect place to meet your purchasers,” she said. “If the federal government came up the river, you could go roll off the back.”
A five-minute boat ride from the mainland, and with an electric system that holds a backup generator, the island could also serve as a full-time residence.
The package includes a three-bedroom cottage with an open-plan living and dining room, as well as a wood-burning stove. Other features include a dock, a beach, a launch area for kayaks and canoes, and a heated outdoor swimming pool.
“Washington, D.C., was still a small outpost in the 1800s,” David DeSantis, the broker on the listing, told Insider. “It was the wilderness. There was a lot of piracy on the water, it was sort of a lawless environment.”
“By current standards of what people think of in the US as beachfront summer homes, this is still pretty modest,” DeSantis added. “But it’s got a lot of charm. The house is more like an ‘expanded cottage.’ It’s not like living in a mansion on an island. You could turn it into that if you wanted to but that’s not their vibe.”
As the Harmons are nearing 80, they said age played a factor in their decision to finally sell their beloved island.
“It’s bittersweet,” Gail said.