Photo courtesy of William Grier Eargle
If you’ve driven by the three story brick house at 802 N. Washington, you may have noticed that it has moved in recent months — a few times.
The house, built in 1890, is being saved and incorporated into the construction of a new five-story hotel.
William Grier Eargle lived at 802 N. Washington St. in the 1970s and early 1980s when his parents ran an antique shop named The Furniture Mill out of the first floor of the home.
According to Eargle, the house had been empty for 20 years before his family moved in, and it needed an extensive, 6-month long renovation before they could live there. “When we moved in, I can remember the first month, the rats were unbelievable in there,” Eargle said.
Eargle’s parents were originally from Columbia, South Carolina, and moved to Alexandria when his father, who worked for the government, was assigned to work at the Pentagon. The family rented the property from the owner of the Towne Motel, which was located adjacent to the house. Eargle’s father built a small addition between the house and the motel to provide extra storage and workspace for the store.
“I remember as a kid, my dad made me carry the rent over to the hotel office every month. That’s how I remember that it was $475 [a month],” Eargle recalled.
Despite being in rough shape when they moved in, Eargle said that the house had a lot of architectural appeal. “When you came in the front door it has a foyer. Once you got inside it was all wood floors, the railings the banisters, there was a lot of intricate woodwork in there,” he explained. A previous tenant had painted the woodwork brown but his family worked hard to refinish it to its original condition.
Photo courtesy of William Grier Eargle
The first floor of the house had a kitchen, living room and dining area. A two story porch on the side of the house was accessible from the first and second levels. Over the kitchen on the second floor was the only bathroom in the house and four bedrooms. The third floor contained two more bedrooms, which Eargle had all to himself.
“You would never know when somebody would come walking into your room because you had a shop downstairs and they wouldn’t see the 'do not enter' sign,” Eargle recalled with a chuckle.
The family operated the furniture store with great success, regularly bringing in six-figures from the store alone.
Photo courtesy of William Grier Eargle
“My dad remarked that it was one of the first places you saw as you came from D.C. to Alexandria. That’s why he thought it was such a good location for his business,” said Eargle.
Clientele were mostly from D.C., and some were people moving to Alexandria. He remembers getting up at 2 a.m. and buying furniture with his parents at flea markets in Pennsylvania and New York to sell in the store. The shop was even featured in Washingtonian magazine at the time.
Eargle has a lot of memories of what Alexandria was like back in the 70s and 80s, describing it as a place with a small town feel. The shop and house were considered outside of Old Town proper since it was a good 8 blocks from King Street.
The surrounding neighborhood was mostly African American and Eargle attended Parker-Gray middle school before it closed in 1979. He played basketball with other kids in the neighborhood using a hoop set up on the garage behind the house.
He distinctly recalled the loud airplane noises from National Airport before noise abatement made planes to fly over the river. His family grew a large garden on the property and he remembers that people would stop by to talk all the time.
“It was different times, there wasn’t as many people. I got a job down in Old Town at a restaurant called Perfectly Frank, it was a hot dog joint…our clientele were mostly the merchants that had shops up and down King Street and some of the back streets,” Eargle said.
Photo courtesy of William Grier Eargle
A photo of Eargle as a young man taken in the house.
When Eargle graduated from T.C. Williams High School (now Alexandria City High School) in 1982, his father retired and shut down The Furniture Mill. His parents moved away and opened a Bed & Breakfast in Saluda, North Carolina. Eargle stayed in the house for two more years, living with roommates and forming a rock band. “It was just a real kind of party situation most of the time over there,” he admitted with a chuckle.
Eargle moved away in 1984 and to his knowledge nobody lived in the house after that, but he didn’t leave the house without a memento of his time there. He took two huge pocket doors with him, which he said now sit in his garage. He would love to see them returned to the house.
Eargle is glad that the house is not being torn down and hopes that it finds new life as part of the hotel.
