05/09/2026
Happy 100th Birthday (1926 - 2026) to our beautiful home in Alexandria, Virginia. We are thrilled to be able to preserve this home for the future. We located the 1926 deed in the Arlington courthouse records, because Alexandria only went back to 1930. The original owners operated a print shop on Mount Vernon Avenue and the house had multiple generations living there from 1926 to 1971. The backyard served as a garden to feed the family and still includes the 1926 yellow pine, chicken coop.
In 1971 the house was purchased from the original family to an organization for troubled teenage girls. Five to eight girls lived at the house along with one to two counselors at all times with constant rotation.
In 1996 the house was sold to the current owners (us). We discovered large locks on bedroom doors, books on witchcraft in the closet, beer cans in the attic, paper dolls in the kitchen ceiling, a whiskey bottle in the first floor bathroom, and tiny cat footprints in the basement concrete floor. We've had five women stop by and gaze at the house, as it was an important turning point when it was a group home during their youth. We had the niece of the original owner come to visit the house and we gave her the paper doll.
Over the years we've taken extra steps to preserve this classic craftsman house. Things change, but living in a beautifully constructed home with a working garden and an open front porch connects residents to the environment and community.
