Alexandria, VA Did you know that Del Ray was made up of a scattering of wood and brick buildings in the 20s. Check out this old map of Del Ray north of Alexandria from back in 1921. This map of Del Ray in 1921 shows how how undeveloped the area was. The yellow structures are wood frame buildings and the pink ones are brick. It’s certainly a lot different today with a mix of both old, new, and remodeled. Can you identify any of these structures that lasted through to now?
Here’s a map of the same area today. [googlemaps: https://maps.google.com/maps? ]
Thank you to Ghosts of DC for this wonderful story about our neighborhood.
#Alexandriava #GhostsofDC #DelRayAlexandria
I grew up in one of the two houses on the “even” number side of the 300 block of E. Howell Avenue. On the map, there are two identical houses sitting side by side, 312 and 314. My mother’s step-father Lawrence Davis owned 312, and the property from the house to DeWitt Avenue. In @1960, an addition was added to the left side of the house, adding two bedrooms upstairs and a large dining room on the first floor. 314 remained in its original state until the later in the century when the very large addition was added. If you stand in the street and look up at the peak of the the two roofs you can see similar peak and attic window and vent on both houses.