Captain John Harper and His Houses
The streets of the old port of Alexandria bear royal names. Prince is
one of those streets, shown in the first map of the town as surveyed in
1749. The 100 block is still paved with cobblestones "big as beer kegs"
purportedly laid by Hessian prisoners during the Revolution.
The brick houses which sprang up in early days set the standard for the
town. Many of these houses were erected prior to the Revolution and
immediately after the signing of the peace in 1783. All original lots
had been built upon by 1765 but there remained between these first
houses empty spaces. There was a constant effort to have all vacant
spaces of the lots built upon, so as to present an unbroken front. By
1790 the 100 and 200 blocks of Prince Street stood, very much as they
stand today, the visible expression of the Scottish and English towns
that our ancestors had left behind them.
These houses were nearly all built by Captain John Harper, and when not
built by him, built on his land at a stipulated ground rent. The north
side of the 100 block was part of lot No. 56 and until after 1771 no
houses stood there. The ground rose here in a high bank above the
Potomac, and the original lot contained less ground than a quarter of an
acre. Bought by the Honorable William Fairfax at the first auction in
1749, in 1766 he was released from building thereon, as it was stated
the improvement on his lot No. 57 was adequate for the two lots and
"such was the true intent and meaning of the Trustees."[137]
The Honorable William Fairfax deeded this property to his son, Colonel
George William Fairfax, who sold it on November 25, 1771, to Robert
Adam. Adam in turn sold to John Hough of Loudoun County on December 11
and 12, 1771; and Hough, after disposing of several parts of the Fairfax
lots, sold in June 1772, the remaining parts of lots Nos. 56, 57 and 58,
fronting on Prince Street, to Captain John Harper of Philadelphia.
This is our first introduction to John Harper in the records of
Alexandria. Apparently he must have made this purchase through someone
else, for nearly a year later Washington received the following letter:
Philadelphia, May 5th 1773
Esteemed Friend
Colonel Washington
From the little acquaintance I had with thee formerly, I take the
liberty of recommending the bearer Cap^t John Harper who is in
partnership with William Hartshorne--John Harper comes down in order
to see the country, if he likes, they propose to come down and settle
with you; they are Men that have a verry pretty Interest--W^m
Hartshorne lived with me some Time--They are Industrious, careful,
Sober men; if Cap^t Harper should want to draw on this place for Five
hundred Pounds, I will engage his Bills shall be paid--Any Civilitys
shewn him will be returned by
Thy Friend
REESE MEREDITH[138]
Harper did nothing with these newly purchased lots until after the
Revolution, when he began to sell and to build at astonishing speed. The
number of deeds in the clerk's office in Fairfax and in Alexandria of
property transferred to or from him fill page after page in the records.
A book on John Harper's activities would be a good history of early town
housing. Twice married, he had twenty-nine children--and to every one he
left a house and lot.
[Illustration: 211 Prince Street was John Harper's gift to his daughter,
Peggy Harper Vowell, April 10, 1793. Here Dr. Dick lived from 1796 to
1804. As he was here in 1815 it is safe to assume that he occupied this
house for nineteen years. He paid John Harper L70 a year rent.]
John Harper's property housed many of Alexandria's important citizens.
Two of Washington's physicians occupied adjoining houses built by him on
Prince Street, though not at the same time. Dr. Craik lived at least
three years and probably five at 209 Prince Street--from 1790 to 1793,
and doubtless until 1796, when he moved to the house he purchased on
Duke Street. Dr. Dick lived at 211 Prince Street from 1798 certainly
until 1804, and then again at the same house in 1815. Surely it is
safe here to domicile the restless Doctor, for these ten undocumented
years between 1805 and 1815. The Doctor paid for this house L70 per
annum.
[Illustration: The Harper-Vowell Houses or the Sea Captains' Row]
The early Harper houses which fill lower Prince Street are known in
Alexandria today as "the Sea Captains' Houses" or "Captains' Row" and in
truth they were either owned or occupied by captains or masters of
vessels. After weathering the storms of a hundred and fifty years or
better, their sea legs, or foundations, are well established in the soil
of Alexandria, and they present one of the attractive sights of the
town. The street slopes at a steep angle from the top of the hill, at
Lee Street to the river, and the quaint old houses go stair-step down
toward the Potomac in an unbroken line; sometimes a roof or a chimney
sags with age, or a front facade waves a bit. The first house in the
block on the northwest corner of Prince and Union was our stout
Captain's warehouse and his wharf jutted out into the Potomac across the
street from his place of business. A few years ago a great oil tank
buried in the ground forced its way to the surface, bringing with it the
enormous beams of John Harper's wharf and part of an old ship rotting in
the earth. Real estate was only a side issue with the Captain. His main
interest was the sea, his ships, and their cargoes.
On February 23, 1795 Harper sold to John Crips Vowell and Thomas Vowell,
Jr., for L150, that part of lot No. 56 fronting on Prince Street, 24
feet 6 inches, 88 feet 3-1/2 inches in depth, which begins on the "North
side of Prince, fifty feet to the Eastward of Water Street, upon ye
Eastern Line of a ten-foot alley, and all houses, buildings, streets,
lanes, alleys, etc...." The Vowells agreed to lay off and keep open
forever an alley upon the northern back line of the premises, nine feet
wide "Extending from the aforesaid ten-foot alley to the line of ...
William Wright."[139] This described property was one of those houses
built by Harper. The two Vowells were his sons-in-law and both gentlemen
in the shipping trade.
By this circuitous route we arrive at 123 Prince Street,[Owner: Miss
Margaret Frazer.] the house with a pure _Directoire_ tent room,
practically a duplicate of that at Malmaison, and another room with a
magnificent painted Renaissance ceiling. How such work became a part of
the sturdy two-story "Sea Captains' Houses" is one of Alexandria's
mysteries. It is true that both rooms were in a deplorable state of
repair, and it was necessary to trace the work on paper, repair the
plaster and then continue the interrupted design. Naturally, the colors
were freshened. It was exciting to watch this discovery unveiled, when
sheets of shabby paper were pulled from the walls, and the artist
repaired and restored the work of some itinerant master whose name has
vanished with his dust these hundred years or better.
John Harper, a Quaker, was born in Philadelphia in 1728, and he was
living in Alexandria in 1773, if not before. By his first wife, Sarah
Wells of Pennsylvania, he had twenty children. He married at her death
Mrs. Mary Cunningham, a widow, the daughter of John Reynolds of
Winchester. By this lady he had nine children. In 1795 he was living at
his residence on Prince Street, for William Hodgson's property was
described in his insurance record as being next door to John Harper on
the west. Captain Harper's house is now known as 209 Prince Street and
today bears, erroneously, a plaque to the memory of Dr. Dick. This is
the house in which Dr. Craik was living in 1790-93. Incidentally, no
record viewed in a search of hundreds mentions Dr. Dick as occupying 209
Prince Street. On the contrary, Dr. Dick in 1796 was paying insurance on
his dwelling on Duke Street.
In his old age Captain John Harper built two brick houses on the east
side of Washington Street, south of Prince. In one of these he died in
1804, aged seventy-six years. Dr. Dick attended John Harper in his last
illness and was paid sixty-five dollars by the executors for this
service. Wine for the funeral was eleven dollars, the coffin and case
cost twenty-six dollars, and the bellman received one dollar for crying
property to be sold. Captain John Harper lies buried in the cemetery of
the old Presbyterian meetinghouse near two of his daughters, Mrs. John
C. Vowell and Mrs. Thomas Vowell.
Captain Harper was an ancestor of Mrs. Mary G. Powell, author of _The
History of Old Alexandria_. She tells of his patriotic action in
procuring ammunition from Philadelphia for the independent companies of
Prince William and Fairfax Counties: "Eight casks of powder, drums and
colors for three companies."[140] His religion prohibited his taking
part in combat, but his sympathy was manifested in a very practical
fashion. John Harper was a member of the first city council in 1780 and
of the congregation of the old Presbyterian meetinghouse. He was one of
General Washington's Alexandria agents for Mount Vernon produce, doing
an extensive business with the General in the matter of "Herring." At
Washington's death he took part in the Masonic ceremonies at the
funeral, and his son, Captain William Harper, commanded the artillery
company on that eventful day. This son took an active part in the
Revolution at the battles of Princeton, Monmouth, Brandywine, and Valley
Forge, and crossed the Delaware with Washington. He succeeded to the
business at Prince and Union. John Harper's third son, Robert, was a
lawyer and married a daughter of John W. Washington, of Westmoreland
County. John Harper, Jr., married Margaret West of West Grove, daughter
of John West, and while acting as foreign agent for the Harper firm in
the West Indies, was drowned in 1805.
Alexandria's Malmaison, or the Harper-Vowell house, listed as 123 Prince
Street, was the residence of the eminent architect, Ward Brown, until
his death in 1946.
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