Exploring the History of the Murray-Dick-Fawcett House
The property is one of the oldest and least-altered in Alexandria
By Rachel Bayler
Alexandria, VA – May is Preservation Month, a celebration of local and state historic preservation efforts. As a leader in historic preservation, the City of Alexandria is the site of over 200 structures constructed before 1820. It also has seven historic districts, including the third oldest historic district in the country, the Old and Historic District established in 1946.
For decades, Alexandria citizens have led efforts to preserve historic architecture and archaeology. This dedication aided in the founding of the Alexandria Archaeological Commission in 1975.
One place that has benefited from the city’s close attention to local historic preservation is the Murray-Dick-Fawcett House. Located at 517 Prince St., the structure is an eighteenth-century frame and brick dwelling built between 1772 and 1774. It was later expanded in stages between 1784, 1790, and before 1823. It served as a single-family, middle-class home.
The original structure was a 1.5-story, “hall-and-chamber” style dwelling. Later additions included a dining room, an additional chamber, and an excavated cellar. A one-story brick service wing consisted of a kitchen, smokehouse, three privies, and an eastward extension. The main door was relocated in 1816.
According to the National Register of Historic Places, the Murray-Dick-Fawcett House is one of the oldest properties in Alexandria. It is also one of the least altered 18th-century houses in Northern Virginia.
The house is named for three of its former owners: Patrick Murray, a livery stable owner who built the house; Elisha Cullen Dick, a physician who bought it in 1794 and would later attend to George Washington on his deathbed; and the Fawcetts, a family descended from local merchant John Douglass Brown who purchased the home in 1816.
The descendants of the Brown family maintained ownership of the property for over 184 years until it was sold in 2000 to Joe Reeder, who still lives there today.
The house and its occupants witnessed their fair share of history in over 250 years. A love letter from the early 1850s between Jannett Brown and J. Wallace Hooff, whom she married in 1853, bears a rare Blue Boy stamp, valued today at over a million dollars. During the Union occupation of Alexandria during the Civil War, the Hooffs hid the family silver to avoid its confiscation. Richard Fawcett, son of the Hooff’s daughter Mary Golding Hooff and Edward Stabler Fawcett, died in military service during WWI. In 1936, Richard’s brother Lewis opened the house for public viewing for the Historic American Buildings Survey.
Today, letters, notebooks, clothing, and papers from the Brown, Hooff, and Fawcett families preserve the history of the building and its occupants over the centuries.
The City of Alexandria acquired the house in 2017 with the support of conservation trust funds for future use and preservation as a historic site, museum, and pocket park. Since 2021, the Office of Historic Alexandria has undertaken projects to restore and preserve the interior, exterior, and roof of the home. The city announced a Comprehensive Plan in February 2025 that outlines future steps for the preservation of the house as a heritage tourism site.
Celebrate Preservation Month at local events throughout Alexandria this May. The City hosts weekly, behind-the-scenes Specialty Tours of local eighteenth-century buildings like Gadsby’s Tavern Museum. Readers can visit the Office of Historic Alexandria website at alexandriava.gov/historic for more information on how to join in the efforts to celebrate and continue the preservation of Alexandria’s historic buildings and sites.
For more information on Historic Preservation in Alexandria, please visit alexandriava.gov/Preservation. For more information on the Murray-Dick-Fawcett House and Garden, visit alexandriava.gov/MDFHouse.
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