George Washington's Tenements
[123 South Pitt Street. Owners: Mr. and Mrs. Fred Latimer Hadsel.
125 South Pitt Street. Owners: Mr. and Mrs. Harlan Trott.]
On the corner of Pitt and Prince Streets stand two little frame houses
that possess the distinction of being the only buildings in Alexandria
built on George Washington's lots and dating back to his time. Their
history is fairly complete and may be compiled by anyone taking the
trouble to search the records housed in the Alexandria clerk's office
and balancing those data against the well kept accounts and writings of
General Washington.
Alexandria had outgrown her swaddling clothes by 1761 when the trustees
petitioned the assembly for permission to extend the limits of the town.
This was promptly granted. New acreage was added, divided into lots and
sold at auction as formerly. General Washington bought, at the sale held
on May 9, 1763, two half-acres of ground, numbered on the plat as 112
and 118, which he took up later for approximately L48. For the former,
the subject of this sketch, on the northwest corner of Pitt and Prince,
he paid L38. On the latter lot at Pitt and Cameron Streets he built his
town house six years later. As early as 1760 Washington spoke of "my
House in Town," but this earliest reference[168] is believed to have
related to Lawrence Washington's estate, for which he was one of the
executors. Its subsequent story has not been unwound, but all facts
point to the house at South Lee Street as having been built by Lawrence.
General Washington acquired the deed to lot No. 112 in 1765 and mention
was made of it in his will and in the accompanying inventory of his
property. At the time of his death the lot had been subdivided for
building and let on ground rent, for purposes of revenue. The two small
frame houses standing today at 123 Pitt and 501 Prince Streets
unquestionably date from this period.
Time did not deal gently with these little houses and a few years ago
they were condemned by the city council as unfit for habitation and
ordered to be destroyed as they created a fire menace. Former owners
succeeded in allaying the ultimatum of the council, reclaiming them from
oblivion. Unaware that the story of Washington's ownership was true, the
wing of one was demolished, the other is a new addition and replaces a
smaller one too dilapidated to restore. The floors, mantels, much of the
trim, some hardware and two chimneys are original. The uprights were
found to be mortised together and numbered in Roman numerals. Handmade
nails and split wood laths formed part of the original construction.
Preservation of the structure was the urgent concern.
In her _History of Old Alexandria_ Mrs. Powell tells an interesting
anecdote relating to the construction of these houses. The mention of
"Mr. La Fayette" identifiable as the son of the Marquis, fixes the
period at 1797. It seems that the coach had been sent to Alexandria from
Mount Vernon for repairs and stood in the courtyard of the coachmaker's
waiting to be called for. Two little children, Hannah Taylor and Joe
Peters, were playing hide-and-seek in the courtyard. The little girl
opened the door and hid in the coach. Joe failed to find her, and she
fell asleep. The carriage was called for, the horses hitched and driven
to Mount Vernon, without awakening the child. Only when the coach came
to a standstill in the stable yard did she awake, much frightened and in
tears. She was carried at once to the house, soothed and petted. The
General dispatched a servant on horseback to tell Mr. and Mrs. Taylor
that the little girl was safe and would be returned in the morning. She
dined with the family, sat next to Miss Nelly, and was laughed at by a
young man called "Mr. La Fayette" whom she did not like. She was put to
bed by the Negro maid, Caroline Brannum, in a little room at the head of
the stairway, wearing one of Miss Nelly's gowns, much too large, but
with beautiful lace on neck and sleeves, her sheets warmed by the first
copper warming pan she had ever seen. Caroline left the candle burning
until Hannah fell asleep, to keep the little girl from being frightened.
She had a splendid breakfast and was returned home in the coach wrapped
in a large shawl and with a piece of cake as booty.
After that she frequently saw General Washington on the streets of
Alexandria. "He often walked past her father's shop to the corner of
Pitt and Prince, where two small frame houses were being built, and he
seemed to be giving some directions to the carpenters, but he did not
recognize Hannah who stood in too much awe of the great man to make
herself known."[169] Hannah was all of seven years old at the time of
the visit. Her trip to Mount Vernon furnished her with conversational
matter for the rest of her life.
[Illustration: Washington identified this sketch: "Col^o Fitzgerald
respect^g my Vacant Lot-in-Alexandria" and the notation under Prince
Street is also in his handwriting. This rough draft seems to have been
done by Fitzgerald pursuant to the General's letter to him, dated June
12, 1797. (_Courtesy Library of Congress_)]
The little houses, known in Alexandria for many years as the Washington
Tenements, fell to the lot of his nephew, Lawrence Washington, in the
division of the estate.
Now to explore the title for those whose time does not permit or whose
inclination does not incite to delving into old and dusty records.
In February 1767 Washington, in an irate letter to Carlyle & Adam, who
had neglected to pay for some wheat, soundly berates them, complaining
that in September 1764, he passed his bond for the wheat for "some lotts
in Alexandria as payment," only to have the money demanded again with
interest and "was at some pains to convince Mr. John Alexander of the
unreasonableness of paying twice for the same thing."[170]
[Illustration: The Washington Tenements]
Writing to his friend, the Secretary of War, Henry Knox, in January
1785, he says, "... Rents have got to such an amazing height in
Alexandria, that (having an unimproved lot or two there) I have
thoughts, if my finances will support me in the measure, of building a
House, or Houses thereon for the purpose of letting."[171] Later in that
same year he confides to Knox that his finances were not equal to
undertaking the projected building in Alexandria.
Ten years later the lot was still unimproved, when Halley, who owned
abutting property, was desirous of acquiring ten feet of Washington's
land for an alley. The deal did not go through and a year later William
Summers offered the owner three thousand dollars for the lot in
question, which was declined. President Washington wrote Tobias Lear,
his secretary, under date of March 21:
I have no wish to part with the lot unless I can do it upon
advantageous terms, and can dispose of the Money in a more productive
manner. I had thoughts of building on it, but this would be attended
with trouble, and perhaps a good deal of impositions; as it could not
be properly attended to in the execution of the work. And besides
workmens wages and materials are very high at this time.[172]
Shades of a later postwar era!
By June 1797, Washington had determined upon the subdivision as a
solution. This was time-honored practice locally. To John Fitzgerald, on
June 12 he wrote, "If you have had leizure to examine my unimproved lot
in Alexa, more attentively, and have digested any plan in your own mind
for an advantageous division of it, I would thank you for the result, as
I wish to fix on a Plan." A plot plan, docketed by Washington "my vacant
lot in Alex" has been found among his papers preserved in the Library of
Congress,[173] and is worthy of reproduction. That this plan was carried
out almost to the letter is revealed by the text of an advertisement
prepared in July to be set up in the gazettes:
The Subscriber having resolved to lay off the half acre lot which he
holds in the town of Alexandria (bounded by Prince and Pitt Streets)
into convenient building squares, gives this public notice thereof;
and of his intention to lease them forever, on ground Rent. Five and
a half feet extending from Prince Street, will be added to the alley
already left by Mr. Rickets, across to Mr. Halleys lot; and another
Alley of ten feet will be laid out about midway the lot from Pitt
Street until it intersect the former Alley. All the lots on Prince
Street will extend back to this Alley, and be about 83 or 4 feet in
depth. And the lots North thereof will extend from Pitt Street to the
first mentioned Alley, and be four in number of equal front (about 21
feet each). The other lot will have a breadth of 26 feet on Prince
Street and about 83 or 4 on Pitt Street, or may be divided into
[illegible] remaining front on the former street will be divided into
[illegible] lotts, equal in size and abt. 24 or 5 feet front each. If
any persons should be inclined to make offers for the lots here
described, or any of them, Mr. Jas. Anderson (my manager) will
receive the same [illegible] shortly, the lotts will be exposed at
public sale, of which notice will be given.[174]
The following September, writing to James Harrison, he said, "The Ground
Rent of the lot I have offered to Lease, in Alexandria, is three dollars
a foot, for what it measures on _each_ Street. This I must obtain as an
annual Rent or the lot will not be disposed of in that way."[175]
Washington died on December 14, 1799, and his will, written July 9,
1799, was probated January 20, 1800. In an annexed schedule of property
which he directed be sold (some conditionally disposed of) with
explanatory notes relative thereto appears this entry:
Alexandria
Corner of Pitt & Prince Stts. half an Acre--laid out into build[in]gs
3 or 4 of wch. are let on grd. Rent at $3 pr. foot. 4,000(t)[176]
Under the note "t" the property is further described: "For this lot
though unimproved, I have refused $3500.--It has since been laid off
into proper sized lots for building on--three or 4 of which are let on
ground Rent--forever--at three dollars a foot on the street,--and this
price is asked for both fronts on Pitt & Princes Street."[177]
These lots were included in the estate left to his wife for her
lifetime. Martha Washington died on May 22, 1802. On June 7, 1803, the
executors of Washington's estate sold this half-acre lot divided into
nine lots, Nos. 1 to 4 on Pitt and Nos. 5 to 9 on Prince. An alley ten
feet wide separated the Prince Street lots from those on Pitt. Only one
lot was unimproved. The executors submitted this sale along with others
made the same day to be recorded at Fairfax July 15, 1811.
The lot at the intersection of Pitt and Prince, bearing the number 5 in
the division, was sold to L.A. Washington for $1,613.33, bringing more
by nearly four hundred dollars than any of the other eight.
Lawrence Augustine Washington's deed for this property was dated August
7, 1804, and calls for "twenty-five feet four inches on Prince Street,
beginning at the intersection, running in depth parallel to Pitt
eighty-three feet to a ten-foot alley, and all Houses, Buildings,
Improvements, Streets and Allies."[178]
On the death of Lawrence A. Washington the little houses and the lot on
the corner of Prince and Pitt Streets became the property of his son,
Robert W. Washington. He in turn sold the property to Alexious Johnson,
at whose death it was sold at public auction by Samuel Bartle,
commissioner, to William Gregory for $605.00 on July 11, 1844. Three
years later, September 13, 1847, Will and Mary Gregory sold the same
property to Benjamin Huges. Benjamin and Susan Huges divided the
property, selling 30 feet 10 inches on Pitt Street to Joseph Francis
Cook on July 15, 1874, and on July 26, 1887, the Huges sold the house
and lot on the corner of Prince and Pitt, running 25 feet west on Prince
and 52 feet north on Pitt to J. Frank Taylor. On July 17, 1874, Joseph
Francis Cook and his wife, Georgeanna, conveyed to Taylor the part they
had previously bought from the Huges.
On April 20, 1897, J. Frank Taylor conveyed this same property to Walter
G. Rogers, and on April 20, 1900, Walter G. Rogers and his wife, Matilda
A. Rogers, sold to George T. Klipstein. In 1935 the property was
purchased by Charles B. and Gay Montague Moore, and in 1945 the property
was again divided, and the house on Pitt Street was sold to Mr. Charles
Francis Alexander, and the Prince Street House to Colonel Hubbard.
[Illustration: In England a Georgian Cottage, but in Alexandria a great
house]
[Illustration]