Korea’s Logan Circle Legation: Sold for $5, Bought Back

May 8, 1889 photograph of the Korean Legation at 1500 13th Street with staff in gat and the taegeukgi flag flying

In 1891, King Gojong paid $25,000 for a Victorian townhouse on Iowa Circle to house Joseon’s first mission to the United States. Nineteen years later, after Japan forced the protectorate, the empire sold the building for five dollars. Korea bought it back in 2012 for $3.5 million. The museum opened in 2018.