Location: This hidden gem is located at 523 Queen Street in Alexandria, VA (see the Clue Me! Map). This tiny house was built in 1830 by John Hollensbury, a brickmaker and bricklayer, also on the city council. John lived next door at 525, with his two daughters.

Most houses in this area were very close together, often just wide enough for a person to squeeze in between them for periodic maintenance (note the red house and its neighbor to the right). But Hollensbury at 525 and his neighbor at 521 had a spacious 7 ½ feet between them.

At first blush, this might seem like a good thing. But, it turns out that gap was just wide enough for horses and carriages to cut through, making it a handy short cut for people going between the downtown to the south and their homes to the north.

For every problem there is a solution. Hollensbury plunked down $45.65 to buy the alley. He then put some of his bricks to good use, building this cozy two level, one bed, one bath, 375 square foot home.

This is now called the Hollensbury Spite House, based on two theories of why he built the house. One was that he was tired of wagons gouging his bricks. Another was that he had a falling out with the fellow at 521, and didn’t want to be his next door neighbor anymore. An alternative and equally plausible explanation is that he built the small house for his daughters.

Whatever Hollensbury’s motivation, there’s now a very cute little house on Queen Street where well-preserved gouges can be seen on the interior walls, evidence of run-ins between Hollensbury’s bricks and the carriages taking the short cut.

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Here's the hidden gem entry from our Clue Me! map.

Clue

Cozy is an understatement

Description

The little house built in what used to be an alley

Why It's Interesting

There are the stories about why this house was built, but I like the idea that an average person could lay down and touch both sides of their house!

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