Once Grand, Now Bedraggled

"I don't have the key," Miletic said, "and trust me, I don't know who has the key."

Last month, the D.C. Preservation League issued its annual list of endangered properties. The Democratic Republic of the Congo's ramshackle former embassy earned a spot. With its peeling paint, rotting windows and ever-weakening roof, the mansion is "a classic example of demolition by neglect," the league wrote. Neighbors have complained about squatters.

Rob Halligan, a Dupont Circle activist, has written letters and attended meetings about the property, all of which, he said, has yielded one obvious improvement: a board over a second-floor window. "This building is just going to crumble," he said.

Pakistan's old embassy on Massachusetts Avenue has been vacant for four years, along with its former diplomatic offices on R Street NW, where the intercom dangles by a wire in the marbled vestibule and crumpled newspapers are piled up, one dated Aug. 26, 2006. On a recent day, a bottle of Harvey's Bristol Cream stood in the corner.

"Isn't that unbelievable?" asked John Sukenik of Kalorama, gazing at heaps of torn shrubbery in the courtyard. "It's unsightly and disrespectful to the neighborhood."

The former Yugoslavia is listed as the owner of a deserted mansion two doors away. Just off the far corner, next to Bulgaria's embassy and across from Brazil's, Argentina owns a townhouse that a neighbor said has been unoccupied for years.

Raymond Saba, who owns an inn across from the Yugoslavian property, said he takes it upon himself to trim the hedges and water the flowers, if only to brighten the view from his entrance. "You'd like the street to be lit at night," he said. "You'd like to come out in the morning and say hello. But it's dark. You look at the buildings, and they're falling down."

The owners have their reasons.

The Philippines government built a new embassy off 16th Street and Massachusetts Avenue NW and is pondering the future of the headquarters it vacated more than a decade ago, a four-story building across the street. The country's weathered crest still hangs over the boarded-up entrance, and the only sign of life on a recent morning was an empty plastic foam container and an open packet of mustard on the front step.

The pondering is proving costly. In 2006, the State Department withdrew the former embassy's diplomatic status, according to District officials, and the city sent the Filipinos a tax bill. The city has required that the Filipinos pay a higher rate charged to vacant properties, although foreign countries can gain an exemption if they seek one. As of the past week, the Philippine government owes the District $138,961, records show.

Pakistan has no such financial worries as it decides what to do with its former diplomatic headquarters on Embassy Row, which has been empty since it moved to a new complex off Van Ness Street NW. Although an embassy official said workers maintain the property -- once featured in a magazine published by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts -- a recent visit found uncut grass, damaged steps and open windows, apparently exposing the interior to rain.

Nadeem Haider Kiani, an embassy spokesman, said the government might sell the building or turn it into a cultural center.