Alexandria Spite House, also known as Hollensbury Spite House, is a 7-foot-wide house located at 523 Queen Street in Alexandria, Virginia. It is believed to be one of the skinniest houses in the United States of America and has even been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
The History Of The Alexandria Spite House
John Hollensbury was a council member in Alexandria, Virginia, who lived in a house on Queen Street (next door to what is now the Alexandria Spite House) that had been built in 1780.
How the Alexandria Spirte House came into existence isn’t documented, however, there are three stories on how this house came to be…
The first story (and most popular), is the Hollensbury Spite House was built because John Hollesnbury grew tired of people loitering in the alley next to his house as well as horse-drawn cottages scraping along his house exterior.
The second story is that the Alexandria Spite House was built because John fell out with his neighbor across the alley as it was his horse and carriage that kept damaging his exterior wall.
The third story is that John Hollensbury built the house as a kind of playhouse for Julia and Harriett, his two daughters, and that one eventually lived there as an adult.
While it is fair to say the first story is the most popular, and probably the most likely, we will likely never have definitive proof of why the Hollensbury Spite House came into existence. What we do know, is that in 1830, John Hollensbury paid $45.65 for the lot and built the 7-foot wide, 25-foot deep house.
The Hollensbury Spite House In Recent Years
In 1990, businessman Jack Sammis, who grew up in a narrow rowhouse in Baltimore, Maryland, saw the listing for the Alexandria Spite House. It was the first time in twenty-five years that the home had been on the market, and was listed at $130,000.
Sammis bought the property but was unsure what to do with it, stating: “I knew I wouldn’t live in it full time. It just seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up.”
Sammis hired an interior designer to redesign the rear patio area as well as the interior of the property. The heating and cooling systems were moved into the attic, while the water heater was moved from the kitchen to an upstairs closet.
In 2008, Jack Sammis’s wife, Colleen, stated that they were using the house mostly at weekends while his primary residence was in nearby Arlington.
Photo Credit: New York Times
Photo Credit: New York Times
In recent years the property has featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, CBS News, Bloomberg News, and The Guardian.
If you like the Alexandria Spite House, check out the smallest house in Britain, which is just 72-inches wide!
