The first time I heard of the spite houses in Old Town Alexandria, I joked they must have been for spiteful people. Sure enough – that’s exactly what they were.

This one on Prince St. was built by an adjacent owner to keep people out of his alleyway. So, he did it out of spite.

One of three spite houses in Alexandria, it runs the length of the alley so it’s not wide, but plenty long at 25 feet. That’s 325 square feet overall. Look up and notice it doesn’t equal the height of the adjacent houses because the whole point was blocking people from walking. The venue is now a private home, and we hear the people are nice folks. This home was sold in 1990 for $135,000. Another nearby Spite house was sold for $424,000 in 2016.