Ben Bradlee’s Mausoleum Sets Off a Gossip-Laden Squabble

One of this city’s legendary figures had come to rest in a newly constructed granite mausoleum designed in part by his widow, Sally Quinn, and placed just inside the entrance of one of Washington’s most exclusive and historic cemeteries, Oak Hill.

Yet at almost the same time, the city’s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs was concluding that the mausoleum had been constructed illegally, without the necessary permit or associated historic preservation reviews. To the Washington-based advocacy group that had argued that the project threatened the cemetery’s historic entranceway, it appeared to be a victory. But this being Georgetown, where battles over preservation can take on epic proportions, it was only the beginning.