2525
King Street

The 2500 block of King Street sits along what was historically the Middle Turnpike (later the Leesburg Pike, today King Street + VA Route 7) — the wagon road from Alexandria’s Potomac waterfront west to Loudoun County. The turnpike was chartered in 1813 and completed in 1838; this stretch lay outside the original Alexandria city limits until the western annexation of 1915. ^[1] Source 1 OHA — "Janney's invention saved lives of rail yard workers" Article

Local recollection associates 2525 King Street with the Janney family, the prominent northern-Virginia Quakers for whom nearby Janney’s Lane is named. The lane honors Eli Hamilton Janney (1831-1912), an Alexandria Confederate veteran and dry-goods clerk who, working from a King Street store after the war, invented the modern knuckle railroad coupler that replaced the link-and-pin system and saved tens of thousands of rail-yard workers’ lives. Janney patented the design in 1868 and 1873, sold the rights to McConway and Torley of Pittsburgh in 1878, and died at 607 Cameron Street in 1912. ^[1] Source 1 OHA — "Janney's invention saved lives of rail yard workers" Article

Whether 2525 King was directly owned by Eli, by his father David Janney, or by another family member has not been established against primary sources — the editorial record will be deepened when Alexandria Library Special Collections holdings (Janney family papers, period tax-assessor cards) and the relevant Sanborn fire- insurance maps can be consulted.