523
Queen Street

By the late 1820s John Hollensbury Person John Hollensbury Alexandria brickmaker and property owner who in 1830 built the 7-foot-6-inch-wide alley infill known as the to block loiterers and wagon-wheel hubs from his adjoining Queen Street … owned both 525 Queen Street and the narrow alley parcel that ran between 521 and 525 Queen. The block sat in the heart of Old Town’s commercial-residential mix, two blocks north of King Street, where Federal-period brick rowhouses fronted directly onto the public sidewalk and shared party walls with their neighbors. The alley between Hollensbury’s house and the adjoining 521 Queen lot was an open passage — narrow enough to be useless for wagons but wide enough to attract foot traffic, loiterers, and the detritus of street life on a busy commercial corridor. ^[1] Source 1 Office of Historic Alexandria walking-tour materials Website

In 1830 Hollensbury closed the alley by building across it. He erected a two-story brick infill structure spanning the entire width of the passage — a practical solution that simultaneously deterred loiterers from gathering in the gap and prevented passing wagon-wheel hubs from gouging the exterior wall of his 525 Queen Street house. Both wagon damage and alley loiterers are cited in modern accounts of Hollensbury’s motivation; whether either dominated his decision is not recoverable from the surviving record. ^[2] Source 2 Atlas Obscura — Hollensbury Spite House Website ^[3] Source 3 Wikipedia — Hollensbury Spite House Website

The resulting building measures 7 feet 6 inches at its widest point, rises two stories in brick, and is single-pile in plan, yielding approximately 325 square feet of floor area across the two floors. The narrow footprint accommodates a single room per floor connected by an interior stair. The front facade carries a window-and-door arrangement consistent with the surrounding 1820s–1830s brick rowhouses on Queen Street, so that from the sidewalk the Spite House reads as a continuation of the streetscape rather than as the anomalous infill it actually is. ^[3] Source 3 Wikipedia — Hollensbury Spite House Website ^[1] Source 1 Office of Historic Alexandria walking-tour materials Website

The house has been continuously occupied as a residence from its 1830 construction to the present day. It remains a private residence and is not open to the public. Its singular dimensions have given it a long second life in popular culture: the Spite House is reported to have appeared in Ripley’s Believe It or Not and is widely cited in Alexandria tourism guides and national listicles as one of the narrowest houses in the United States. ^[2] Source 2 Atlas Obscura — Hollensbury Spite House Website

The Spite House is a contributing structure of the Old and Historic Alexandria District. It sits along the popular King Street walking corridor, two blocks off the main retail spine, and is one of the most-photographed buildings in Old Town — a tiny piece of early- republic urbanism that has outlived almost every functional reason for its existence and now persists as both a working private home and a fixed landmark of the historic district. ^[1] Source 1 Office of Historic Alexandria walking-tour materials Website