Hollensbury Spite House

The Hollensbury Spite House is a residential building in Old Town Alexandria with extreme proportions, measuring only about seven feet wide and twenty-five feet deep. The structure spans two stories and relies on adjacent buildings as integral support walls.

Owner John Hollensbury built this structure in 1830 to block a passageway where horse wagons regularly damaged his neighboring property. The solution was a practical, if extreme, response to property damage in nineteenth-century Alexandria.

Residents have made a home in this impossibly narrow space for generations, turning it into a symbol of determined stubbornness in the community. Today, the building stands as a conversation piece about how people adapt and persist in tight quarters.

The interior space is cramped, so it is best to approach with minimal belongings. Since the building remains privately occupied, visits are possible only from outside, though this allows you to appreciate the unusual architecture from the street.

The interior walls display deep grooves and marks left by wagon wheels when the space was still used as a passage before being converted to a residence. These marks are silent reminders of its past role as a traveled route.