Hollensbury Spite House

Original owner and construction John Hollensbury, a brickmaker and city council member in Alexandria, Virginia, lived in a home on Queen Street that was built in 1780 and stood next to an alley. There are three stories on how the small building next to Hollensbury's house came to be. He bought the alley lot at 523 Queen Street for $45.65 and in 1830 built a small house out of spite measuring 7-feet 6-inches (2.3 m) wide and 25-feet (7.6 m) deep to prevent others from further damaging his walls and to reduce noise. The reasoning behind constructing the house and its unusual size earned it the nickname "Spitehouse." The second story of the building's history is that Hollensbury and his neighbor who lived at 521 Queen Street were at one time good friends, but due to the neighbor's carriage damaging Hollensbury's house and a fallout in their friendship in the late 1820s, Hollensbury decided to build the small house. The third and final story is that Hollensbury built a playhouse for his two daughters, Julia and Harriett, and that one of them later lived in the house as an adult. Later history According to local historians, the Hollensbury Spite House was later used as a school and then reverted to residential use, with one family reportedly fitting a bed and crib in the small bedroom. In 1990 businessman Jack Sammis, who founded IMN Solutions and grew up in a narrow rowhouse in Baltimore, Maryland, saw a listing in the newspaper that the Spite House was for sale, the first time it had been on the market in 25 years. Later that day he signed a contract to purchase the home for $130,000. According to Sammis, "I used to walk by it every day when I worked near [the house], and when it was listed in the paper, I knew right away what house it was. I bought it the first day it was shown." It has been featured in articles on the world's smallest houses by CBS News, Architectural Digest, Bloomberg News, and The Guardian. The house is a frequent stop on guided tours of the Alexandria Historic District and tourists frequently stop to take photos of or in front of the house, stretching their arms out to show how small the building is. On occasion people knock on the front door to ask if they can take a tour of the house. According to Sammis "It's on napkins and cards that show Old Town scenes. It’s always on the Christmas tour." The oldest of the other spite houses is 205 King Street, which was built around 1812 and measures 11-feet 9-inches (3.6 m) wide. It has served as a private residence, cobbler's shop, and boutique store. The house located at 403 Prince Street measures 7-feet 9-inches (2.4 m) wide. It was built sometime before 1883, most likely by Samuel Janney, who bequeathed the house and the adjoining property to his son, Henry. The fourth spite house is located at 1401 Prince Street. It measures 8-feet 2-inches (2.5 m) wide and unlike the others, it's a one-story building. The house was constructed sometime in the 1890s and has been incorporated into the adjoining building. ==Property layout==

The Hollensbury Spite House is located at 523 Queen Street in Old Town Alexandria and measures 7-feet 6-inches (2.3 m) wide and 25 feet (7.6 m) deep. The lot measures 356 square feet (33 sq m), which includes the 350-square-foot (32.5 sq m) two-story house and a walled rear garden and patio area, measuring 7 feet (2.1 m) wide and 12 feet (3.7 m) deep. As of 2022, the land is valued at $381,150, and the building is valued at $220,524, with the total property value being $601,674. The exterior of the house is painted bright blue and a cast-iron fire shield hangs on the façade, a feature added in the 19th century to note that a property owner had paid the local fire company to extinguish any fires that might happen at the house. After entering through the narrow front door, there are exposed ceiling beams and painted walls in the living room. There is also a black wooden mantel above a faux fireplace along with a couch and chair. Behind the living room, a small cupboard and microwave are under the narrow wooden stairwell. Beyond the stairwell is a galley kitchen featuring a sink, a four-burner gas range, a small refrigerator and freezer under the counter, and tall cabinets with open shelving. There is a built-in bench at the end of the kitchen counter that when pulled out, provides a fourth seat at the small dining table. Behind the kitchen is the rear entrance featuring French doors that leads to the patio and garden. Once upstairs there is a claw-footed bathtub with a shower in the rear room. Additional storage space, including closets for the stacked washer and dryer and water heater, lines the narrow hallway that leads to the bedroom. There is a large window in the bedroom overlooking Queen Street. A television is inside one of the painted cabinets that are on either side of the window and the double bed is laid out sideways, with the wall acting as the headboard. ==Notes==