1804 March 5 William Thornton Alexander and his wife Lucy sell two parcels of land to John Mills, a merchant, for $800. They include a one-acre lot on the north side of Duke Street, west side of Paine (Payne) Street, and east side of West Street, and a half-acre lot on the northwest corner of Duke and West. (Alexandria Deed Book J:445)

1812 Feb. 4 Gen. Robert Young acquires the one-acre lot located fronting on Duke Street that is on the north side of Duke Street, west side of Paine (Payne) Street, and east side of West Street from John Mills Senior and Nelly, his wife. He also obtains a half-acre lot that begins at the Duke and West intersection. Mills is a former Alexandria merchant who returns to London; his son, identified as John Mills Junior, along with Thomas Swann Esquire, are appointed to complete the transaction. Young agrees to pay $115 a year ground rent forever for the unimproved lot. (Alexandria Deed Book W:84)

1813 Property is assessed at $3,000 because Young starts building a house. (1813 Ward IV tax list p. 10)

1817 May 22 Young and his wife Elizabeth convey the one-acre lot in trust to James Carson for the benefit of Adam Lynn, who endorses six promissory notes drawn by Young at the Mechanics Bank of Alexandria for $13,647, plus one for $3,000 at the branch of the Bank of the United States at Washington. (Alexandria Deed Book F2:120)

1821 Aug 17 Young and his wife sell three lots to the Mechanics Bank of Alexandria, including the one with a dwelling fronting Duke Street, for $12,000. James Carson, trustee, assigns his interest to the bank (Alexandria Deed Book L2:230).  In 1819, Young sells his house at King and Washington streets (Alexandria Deed Book G2:406) and moves to his new three-story brick house on Duke Street (1820 Ward IV Tax List p. 3a).  He lives there with his wife, two daughters, two enslaved women, and two boys under age 10 (1820 Census, p. 280). Young dies in 1824. Brickmaker Benjamin Baden lives in the house in 1825. (1825 Ward IV tax list p. 9)

1828 June 11 Mechanics Bank of Alexandria agrees to pay John Mills $1,265. The bank agrees to take yearly rent of $115 for two lots, the same two that Mills had acquired in 1804 from William Thornton Alexander. This gives Mills the right to retain the land, to use as he wishes. (Alexandria Deed Book R2:228)

Franklin and Armfield

1828 Isaac Franklin and John Armfield lease the properties from the bank. The 1829 Ward IV tax list stated that “Franklin’s black hole” had an assessed value of $3,600. (1829 Ward IV tax list p. 9 Mechanics Bank and 1829 Ward IV tax list)

1832 March 4 James Irwin and his wife Ann sell land to Isaac Franklin and John Armfield for $1,000, “near the town of Alexandria bounded as follows: Beginning at the West side of the George-town road…” Consisting of nine acres, Irwin obtained the land on Jan. 17, 1831. (Alexandria Land Record V2:257)

The following transaction was contained within it starting on page 260.

1832 Oct. 31; recorded 1835 May 6 Mechanics Bank of Alexandria conveys to Robert G. Taylor, Thomas Vowell, George Brent, Louis Beeler, and Robert Brockett, in trust after public auction, to Isaac Franklin and John Armfield, for $2,500. (Alexandria Land Record V2:260)

1832 Nov. 10; recorded Nov. 24 Smith Franklin and John Armfield agree to pay annual rent of $100 to the Mechanics Bank, “as well as certain improvements to be made by the said Franklin & Armfield on a certain tenement and lot,” five years starting the next May 10. Smith Franklin is a nephew of Isaac Franklin and is also Armfield’s brother-in-law. (Alexandria Deed Book U2:89)

George Kephart

1846 March 12 Isaac Franklin and Adelisia [but signed Adelicia] Franklin, his wife, of the Parish of Orleans in the State of Louisiana, and John Armfield and Martha R., his wife, of the State of Tennessee, sell to George Kephart of Frederick County, Maryland, for $9,000 and yearly rent of $115 (Alexandria Deed Book G3:328)

Price, Birch and Company

1858 May 1 George Kephart  now “of Loudoun County” sells for $7,000 a building “now occupied by Walker R. Millin (Millan) as a dwelling and Negro Jail, being a half square of ground more or less, with all the buildings” to Charles M. Price and John C. Cook, who trade as Price, Birch and Company. Kephart is also still a partner. (Alexandria Deed Book T3:353)

1859 November 24 George Kephart and his wife, Margaret, both of Loudoun, sell to John C. Cook, of Washington in the District of Columbia, and Charles M. Price, of Montgomery County, Maryland, the real estate acquired by Kephart on May 1, 1858, for $7,000. It includes a three-story brick building dwelling, jail, and other improvements. (Alexandria Deed Book U3:198)

1860 January 17 John C. Cook and Cecelia M. Cook, his wife, sell to Charles M. Price for $1,000 with interest due three, six, 12, and 18 months after the date, “and each note dated on or about the 12th day of December last 1859.” Cook and Price take the notes “for the payment of the purchase money” for the same lot Kephart and his wife sell them. (Alexandria Deed Book U3:232)

1861 May 24 The Union Army liberates the jail used to hold enslaved people, surprising the Confederate cavalry there during breakfast.

1861 June 3 Charles M. Price of Montgomery County, Maryland, sells to his brother-in-law Solomon Stover of Washington City in the District of Columbia for $6,000 “the same lately occupied by said Charles M. Price, as a Negro Jail” (Alexandria Deed Book V3:29). The deed is acknowledged in Loudoun County the same day by Price, presumably as he fled, but not recorded in Alexandria until January 16, 1862.

1861-1866 The Union uses the site to hold military prisoners and contrabands during and after the Civil War.

1866 May 28 The Bureau of Refugees, Freedman and Abandoned Lands restores property rights to Stover. 

1866 to 1869 Newspaper accounts report criminal activities on the site.

1866 to 1978 Brick building is used as a boardinghouse and tenement under a succession of owners and investors.

1869 Nov. 4 Solomon Stover, denied a war claim for rents and damages because he said the Union occupied and destroyed his property, sells the lot and buildings to Thomas W. (William) Swann, a Washington investor, railroad builder and prominent citizen, for $3,100. (Alexandria Deed Book Z3:563)

1878 to 1884 Alexandria Infirmary and Hospital operates on the site.

1884 to 1984 Brick building is once again used as a boardinghouse and tenement under a succession of owners and investors.

1905 July 21 Susan P.A. Calvert and her husband George E. Calvert mortgage the property and two Duke Street lots, including the one Stover sold in 1869 to her father, Thomas W. Swann, to trustee C. S. Taylor Burke, to secure payment of $6,000 with interest payable semi-annually. (Alexandria Deed Book 54:146)

1915 May 22 Calvert defaults on the mortgage and C.S. Taylor Burke sells property at public auction to attorney Douglass Stuart for $3,900. (Alexandria Deed Book 64:381)

1915 June 2 Burke assigns the purchase to Max Rosenfeld, a merchant who operates a dry goods store in the 500 block of King Street (Alexandria Deed Book 64 483). The property is known as Norman Apartments, named after his only child. Max dies May 27, 1924. His will written on Aug. 29, 1924 leaves the property to his wife Jennie E. Rosenfeld; will is probated June 14, 1926. (Alexandria Will Book 4:311)

1941 October 13 Jennie E. Rosenfeld sells the lot with Young’s three-story building to B.G. Mendelson, Norman Mendelson, Howard Mendelson, and Mary Mendelson, widow, as tenants in common. (Alexandria Deed Book 180:233)

1975 December 3 Mendelsons Properties Incorporated, Mendelson Properties Limited Partnership, and Norman L. Mendelson, Bennie G. Mendelson (aka Benjamin G. Mendelson) and Howard S. Mendelson, convey parcels including Parcel F, Young’s lot, for $70,000. Property is subdivided. (Alexandria Deed Book 767:28)

1975 July 11 Mendelson Properties Limited Partnership sells to investors Edward J. Hunter and James B. Knox. Lots 500 and 501 identified as Norman Subdivision. Three-story brick building of Young on page 683 of plat. (Alexandria Deed Book 802:676)

1977 May 20 Hunter and Knox trade the property to investors Iran D. Black and Niloufar Leibel for other property plus $10,000. Use as apartments. (Alexandria Deed Book 858:339)

1978 June 2 Secretary of the Interior designates 1315 Duke Street Apartments as a National Historic Landmark, as Franklin and Armfield Office.

1984 May 29 Mendelson Properties Limited Partnership, (owners of lot 501, which is 1321 Duke St.), Carey Meushaw, and Thomas J. Stanton, (owner of lot 500, which is 1315 Duke St. and 1311 Duke St., both identified as the Norman subdivision) become trustees for Elizabeth Guhring; purchaser is J. Peter Dunston. Lots 500 and 501 are recorded as the Norman subdivision. Office use. (Some of this transaction is for 1317 to 1321 Duke St.; see plat). (Alexandria Deed Book 1127:323)

1984 June 25 Deed of lease between Elizabeth Guhring and J. Peter Dunston, for rent of $33,000 per year. (Alexandria Deed Book 1126:1127)

1985 May 10 J. Peter Dunston and Betty Mailhouse Dunston take a $400,000 loan from Maryland National Bank for lot 500, the Norman subdivision, which includes Robert Young’s house. Trustees are David W. Loughran and Maureen Guion of Fairfax County. (Alexandria Deed Book 1150:293)

1987 Ann E. W. Stone rents 1315 Duke St. for offices for her Republican direct-response marketing firm, with plans to buy it (but does not). She works with the Alexandria Society for the Preservation of Black Heritage to learn more about the site.

1988 December Building is named Freedom House in honor of the Rev. Lewis Henry Bailey, who was enslaved in the pen as a child before being sent to Texas. Bailey returned to Alexandria at age 21, reportedly on foot, when he was freed in 1863. He founded seven churches for Black persons. Anne Bailey Rose, his daughter (then age 94; she died in 1989), dedicated the plaque placed on the building.

1997 October 23 J. Peter Dunston, trustee, sells the building to the Northern Virginia Urban League, a nonprofit social service organization, for $925,000.  (Alexandria Deed Book 1617:1878)

2008 February 12 Northern Virginia Urban League opens museum exhibit in basement.

2018 February City of Alexandria partners with Northern Virginia Urban League to manage the museum and interpret the site.  

2020 March 24 The City of Alexandria buys the building, parking lot, and museum exhibit from the Northern Virginia Urban League for $1.8 million with plans to preserve and interpret the landmark for future generations. (Alexandria Deed Book 4779:82)

In 1812 Gen. Robert Young acquired two parcels of land, one-acre and a one-half acre, from John Mills (senior; his son helped complete the transaction), a former Alexandria merchant who had returned to London.  (District of Columbia Land Deed W:84. dated February 4, 1812)

The one acre was located on the north side of Duke Street, west side of Payne Street (misspelled Paine in the deed), and east side of West Street. It consisted of two city lots, measuring one-half acre each, and comprised the southern half of the block bounded by Duke, Payne, Prince, and West streets. It started from the Duke and Payne intersection and ran westward on Duke 246 feet and 10 inches, then northward on West Street for 176 feet and 7 inches, then eastward with a line parallel to Duke 246 feet 10 inches. The half-acre parcel started at the Duke and West streets intersection and then ran eastward on Duke 123 feet and 5 inches, then southward on West Street 176 feet seven inches.

Mills had had bought the same parcels on March 5, 1804 from William Thornton Alexander and his wife, Lucy.  (Alexandria County in the District of Columbia Land Deed J:445, dated March 5, 1804)

Young agreed to pay Mills ground rent of $115 starting on January. 1, 1813 and yearly thereafter. The assessed value of the one-acre parcel for tax purposes was $1,000. (1812 Alexandria Ward IV tax list, p. 11) Young started building a house by the next year on it and the value increased to $3,000. (1813 Ward IV tax list, p. 10)

In 1813 Young owned that lot and three others: A vacant half acre at West and Payne streets assessed at $400; one acre on the west side of West Street, vacant, valued at $600; and a one-acre lot at Alfred and Duke to Wolf street, not vacant (but with an illegible notation), valued at $1,500.

Young was a merchant with business interests in and around Alexandria. In 1798 he was a captain of the Alexandria Dragoons and by 1813 had been promoted to brigadier general. He commanded the Second Legion (also called the 2nd Brigade) of the District of Columbia Militia, defending Washington against the British in August 1814 during the War of 1812. (Alexandria and The War of 1812: A Series of Articles Telling How Alexandrians Were Affected 200 Years Ago by the War of 1812, by Ted Pulliam, Alexandria Archaeology Publications No. 117, Office of Historic Alexandria, 2014; Brochure: War of 1812 Burials in the Presbyterian Cemetery)

Perhaps because the building of his three-story brick house was interrupted by the war, or perhaps because he was too busy with the war, he stayed in his house at King and Washington streets until 1819. He sold that house to John A. Stewart, according to a deed made on July 12, 1819. (Alexandria Deed Book G2:406)  By then the value on his Duke Street property had increased to $4,000. (1819 Ward IV tax list, p. 8)

Young still owned other properties (1819 Ward IV tax list, p. 9 and 1820 Ward IV tax list p. 9a) when he moved to Duke Street with his wife, two daughters, and two enslaved women. The census included two boys under 10, but Young had no sons; the enslaved women were one between the age of 15 to 26 and one age 27 to 45. 1820 U.S. Census, p. 280

The house was assessed at $3,600 in 1820—a $400 value decrease from the previous year. Young still owned a vacant half acre lot at Prince and West valued at $500 and a lot and house West side of West Street valued at $400. (1820 Ward IV tax list, p. 3)

By 1824, when Young died, he was in financial trouble. He had put his brick house and two lots up as collateral to pay debts and sold it to The Mechanics Bank of Alexandria. The lot containing his house had been subdivided from the initial sale and was half an acre.

Brickmaker Benjamin Baden occupied Young’s house in 1824, 1825 and 1828. (1825 Ward IV tax list, p. 9)

Franklin and Armfield

In June, 1828 the Mechanics Bank of Alexandria agreed to pay John Mills $1,265 and to take yearly rent of $115 for two lots, the same two that Mills had acquired in 1804 from William Thornton Alexander. This gave Mills the right to retain the land, to use as he wished. (1828 Alexandria Deed Book R2:228)

The location on upper Duke Street was at the edge of town and went south into Fairfax County. It was a major road to the south and west. That did not escape the attention of Isaac Franklin and John Armfield, who by May 1828 leased the lot from the bank.

That November, Franklin and Armfield advertised in the Phenix Gazette a notice that they were seeking 150 “young negroes of both sexes.” The 1829 Ward IV tax list stated that “Franklin’s black hole” had an assessed value of $3,600. (1829 Ward IV tax list, p. 9 and 1829 Ward IV tax list)

On October 31, 1832 Franklin and Armfield agreed at public auction to buy for $2,500 three lots previously owned by Young that he had conveyed to the Mechanics Bank on August 17, 1821, and “all and singular” improvements. (1832 Alexandria Deed Book V2:260)

They also agreed to pay for five years from May 10, 1833, annual rent of $100 in semi-annual payments of $50 each on November 10 and May 10. They agreed to “certain improvements to be made by the said Franklin & Armfield on a certain tenement & lot of ground on the north side of Duke Street.” The deed was not recorded until April 16, 1835.

Another deed was made in November 1832, just days after the public auction, between Smith Franklin and John Armfield. Smith was the brother of Martha Franklin, who married John Armfield. Smith also was the son of Isaac Franklin’s older brother, John. In the deed Smith Franklin and John Armfield were identified as “copartners under the firm of Franklin & Armfield.” It was dated November 10, 1832 and recorded November 24, 1832 and stated that “under a lease from the said Bank for the term of five years, which lease will expire on the 10th day of May next [May 1833],” but five years would mean that a lease was made in 1828; there is no record of that.  Isaac Franklin is not on the deed. Smith Franklin and John Armfield agreed to pay annual rent of $100 to the Mechanics Bank. (1832 Alexandria Deed Book U2:89)
 

George Kephart

George Kephart of Frederick County, Maryland, started operating the business on Duke Street in 1837. In 1846 Kephart bought the lot with the slave jail from Isaac Franklin and Adelisia [cq – but signed Adelicia] Franklin, his wife, of the Parish of Orleans in the State of Louisiana, and John Armfield and Martha R., his wife, of the State of Tennessee. Kephart paid $9,000 and agree to yearly rent of $115. The “sundry lots or pieces of ground” included one bounded on the south by Duke Street, east by Payne Street, and on the west by West Street, and on the north by a line drawn from Payne to West Street, “parallel to and distant” 176 inches from Duke Street. (1846 Alexandria Deed Book G3:328)

In 1850, Kephart owned four properties in Alexandria, the most valuable assessed as “house and 1 square” at $7,000. But it is listed as Prince, West and Payne streets, self. The Duke, West Payne lot was valued at $250. (1850 Ward IV tax list, p. 9)

In Alexandria’s 1850 U.S. Census Slave Schedule, he listed 40 people. (1850 US Census Slave Schedule George Kephart 1 and 1850 US Census Slave Schedule George Kephart 2) 

Price, Birch and Company

On May 1, 1858 Kephart, now identified in the deed as “of Loudoun County,” sold for $7,000 a building “occupied by Walker R. Millin [Millan] as a dwelling and Negro Jail, being a half square of ground more or less, with all the buildings” to Charles M. Price and John C. Cook, who trade as Price, Birch and Company.  (1858 Alexandria Deed Book T3:353)  Kephart was also a partner.

A year and a half later, in November 1859, Kephart and his wife, Margaret, sold to John C. Cook, of Washington in the District of Columbia, and to Charles M. Price, of Montgomery County, Maryland, the same half-square of ground real. It included a three-story brick building dwelling, jail, and other improvements. (1859 Alexandria Deed Book U3:198)

Just months later, in January 1860, Cook and Cecelia M. Cook, his wife, sold that property to Price for $1,000 with interest due three, six, 12, and 18 months after the date, “and each note dated on or about the 12th day of December last 1859.” Cook and Price took the notes “for the payment of the purchase money” for the same lot Kephart and his wife sold them. (1860 Alexandria Deed Book U3:232)

The Union Army occupied the jail on May 24, 1861, surprising the Confederate troops who had taken up residence there during their breakfast. 

A week and a half later, Price fled South, but not before selling the property to his brother-in-law Solomon Stover, of Washington City in the District of Columbia, for $6,000. Stover was a wood and coal merchant. The June 3 deed describes the property as “the same lately occupied by said Charles M. Price, as a Negro Jail” and the same lot conveyed by Kephart and his wife to Price and Cooke, [cq] “containing one half square of ground; together with all the buildings of every description included - the said Solomon Stover shall have quiet possession of the same.” (1861 Alexandria Deed Book V3:29)

On the same day, June 3, in Loudoun County, Virginia, Justice of the Peace J. Edward J. Hammat acknowledged the deed. A notation in the left-hand margin reads: examined and delivered to Henry Birch, January 16, 1862. J. Tacey, clk. [illegible] $2.25. On January 17, 1862, the Clerk’s Office of Alexandria County Court, admitted it to record. It was signed by Jefferson Tacey, Clerk.

From 1861 to 1866 during the Civil War, the Union Army occupied Alexandria and used the site as a military prison to hold inmates including soldiers found in the city without passes, people caught selling alcohol to soldiers, or Southerners found jeering the Union troops. It also was used to house contrabands, slaves who had escaped to Union lines.

In 1864 and 1865, L’Ouverture Hospital for African American soldiers and contraband civilians also operated behind and next to the jail. (Quartermaster Map, L'Ouverture Hospital, Contraband Barracks, etc., War Department. Office of the Quartermaster General 1842-1912, National Archives and Records Administration)

Solomon Stover hired William Lewie Brown, a Philadelphia lawyer, to file an application with the Southern Claims Commission for rents and damages for when the Union Army occupied the property. The paperwork with the Southern Claims Commission no longer exists, according to the National Archives and Records Administration, but papers dated May 28, 1866 from the Chief Quartermaster’s office survive.  Brevet Lieutenant Colonel J.G. C. Lee of the Quartermaster’s Office noted, “Its present condition is considered as good as it was when taken.” Stover asked for $7,450 in claims: $1,000 rent for each year of occupation, $1,200 for stables destroyed by the Union troops, $250 for fences, and $1,000 for damage to the dwelling house. (Solomon Stover Committee on Claims, January 20, 1866)

Stover got his property “formerly known as the ‘Slave Pen’” returned from the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, but was not awarded rents or claims for damages.

Not satisfied, Stover, on February 13, 1868, filed a petition the United States Senate Committee on Claims, as well as a pair of affidavits attesting to the veracity of his statements (on the condition of the property). It was denied, partly because the owner of the property at the time of the occupation was Price, not Stover. It stated, “Price was known to be a rebel and had been a partner of [Henry] Birch in the slave business, to whom the deed was delivered on January 17, 1862.” In addition, the deed had been made “within the enemy’s lines” in Loudoun County, and “when Price made the deed to Stover, he was an enemy and in the enemy’s country.” Stover did not volunteer but did not dispute the fact that not until October 16, 1862, 16 months after his purchase, did the deed get delivered, and that it was delivered to Birch. Furthermore, “In, buying the property he was trading with the enemy and furnishing him money which might be employed in aid of the rebellion. We think the transaction was clearly against public policy and prohibited by a positive rule of law.” (Senate Committee on Claims, Solomon Stover, 41st Congress, 2d. Session, Report No. 104, April 14, 1870)

Stover supplied coal to the War Department in Washington to heat their buildings during the military occupation of his property and in the years following. The Senate committee claim noted that he had expressed sympathy with the Confederates, even while he was supplying coal to the Union.

No matter what condition it was in during the war, the property fell into extreme disrepair afterward. The Alexandria Gazette reported it was the scene of a “colored ball.” There were also reports of robberies and violent crimes; a child’s body was found. (Alexandria Gazette, August 4, 1869) The buildings may have been used by squatters, homeless persons and others left without shelter after the war.

In 1869, a newspaper notice stated that Stover used real estate agents Green and Wise and sold the property to Josiah Ford for $3,300. It “will in future be the site of a Wheelwright’s establishment,” the report said. (Alexandria Gazette, March 3, 1869) No deed of this transaction can be located.

On November 4, 1869, Stover sold the lot and buildings to Thomas W. (William) Swann, a Washington investor, railroad builder and prominent citizen, for $3,100. (1869 Alexandria Deed Book Z3:563)

“The property [including the three-story brick building] is now in a dilapidated condition, but it is the intention of the purchaser to repair and convert it next spring into a handsome residence,” the Alexandria Gazette reported on November 11, 1869. It said that the property had been called “Kephart’s Jail” or “the Slave Pen” during the Civil War.

By April 1870, Swann may have razed the slave pens and other structures, but he kept the three-story building constructed by Robert Young. (Alexandria Gazette, April 9, 1870) He hired John Haynes to build six new two-story buildings, perhaps repurposing some of the brick. (Alexandria Gazette, May 23, 1870)

Young’s brick building was also used as a hospital. Alexandria Infirmary opened on the southwest corner of Duke and Fairfax streets in January 1873. The next year it moved to the intersection of Prince Street and Diagonal Road. In 1878 it moved to 1315 Duke St. On Christmas Day 1882 Dr. George T. Klipstein performed an amputation—the foot of a man who was hit by a train that morning. It was the infirmary’s first surgery and one that changed its scope of medical care. Now known as Alexandria Hospital, it stayed at 1315 Duke St. until 1884. (Alexandria Hospital anniversary brochure 2002; Alexandria Gazette, December 12, 2002)

The 1877 Hopkins Map shows that all the slave pen buildings were gone by the time the infirmary used the brick building, but the main house block and kitchen additions remained.

In his will dated May 30, 1895, Swann bequeathed his property to his wife, Helen M. (Mary Chapman) Swann, for and during her life, and directed that his daughter Susan P. A. (Pearson Alexander) Calvert inherit it from her. (Alexandria Will Book 3:295) Thomas Swann died on July 1, 1895; Helen died just three months later, on November6, 1895.

In 1905, Calvert and her husband mortgaged the property. (1905 Alexandria Deed Book 54:146) By 1915 Calvert defaulted and the bank sold the building at public auction to Douglass Stuart for $3,900. (1915Alexandria Deed Book 64 381)

In 1915, Max Rosenfeld bought it from the bank. Rosenfeld, a merchant who operated a dry goods store in the 500 block of King Street, named it the Norman Apartments, presumably after his son and only child, Norman. (1915 Alexandria Deed Book 64:483) Rosenfeld died on May 27, 1926. His will dated August 29, 1924 left the property to his wife, Jennie E. (nee Eichberg) Rosenfeld. The will was probated on June 14, 1926. (1924 Alexandria Will Book 4:311) Max and Jennie’s son Norman died in 1929 of pneumonia and influenza. His occupation was listed as real estate dealer on his death certificate. (Virginia Death Certificate No. 265)

By 1920, the Mendelson family took over the Norman Apartments, and the building continued to be used as apartments until 1984. The Mendelsons and their companies retained interests until 1975. That year, Mendelsons Properties Incorporated liquated its assets to distribute them to stockholders. Along with Mendelson Properties Limited Partnership, and Norman L. Mendelson, Bennie G. Mendelson (aka Benjamin G. Mendelson) and Howard S. Mendelson, it sold parcels including Parcel F, which was Young’s original lot with his three-story brick building, for $70,000. The property was subdivided. (1975 Alexandria Deed Book 767:28) The same year Mendelson Properties Limited Partnership sold to Edward J. Hunter and James B. Knox and subdivided what was now Lots 500 and 501, 1315 and 1311 Duke St., identified as the Norman Subdivision. Robert Young’s three-story brick building is noted on page 683 of the plat. (1975 Alexandria Deed Book 802:676)

In June 1978, 1315 Duke St. attained National Historic Landmark status as the offices of Franklin and Armfield’s slave business from 1828 to 1836.

Investors owned the building, eventually tuning it into office space by 1984. Hunter and Knox traded the property to investors Iran D. Black and Niloufar Leibel for other property plus $10,000. (1984 Alexandria Deed Book 858:339)

A deed of lease in 1984 between Elizabeth Guhring and J. Peter Dunston stated that annual rent of $33,000 would be charged. (1984 Alexandria Deed Book 1126:1127)

The Mendelson family no longer owned any interest in the property by May 1984. Mendelson Properties Limited Partnership (owners of lot 501, now 1321 Duke St.), Carey Meushaw, and Thomas J. Stanton (owner of lot 500, 1315 Duke St. and 1311 Duke St.) become trustee for Elizabeth Guhring, who sold the property to J. Peter Dunston. (Some of this transaction involves 1317-1321 Duke St.)  (1984 Alexandria Deed Book 1127:323; and Alexandria real estate records) 

In 1985 J. Peter Dunston and his wife Betty Mailhouse Dunston took a $400,000 loan from Maryland National Bank for lot 500, again called the Norman Subdivision, which included Young’s house. They renovated the building and added a fourth floor and windows on the western side. (1985 Alexandria Deed Book 1150:293)

In 1987 Ann E. W. Stone rented the building to use as offices for her direct-response political marketing firm, with plans to buy it. Stone, a founding member of the National Women’s History Museum, has served on numerous boards and commissions, including Virginia’s last Board of Historic Preservation. She worked with the Alexandria Society for the Preservation of Black Heritage to document the history of the slave jail.

In December 1988, under Ann E. W. Stone’s tenure, the building was named Freedom House in honor of the Rev. Lewis Henry Bailey. As an enslaved child, Bailey was held at the jail before being sent to Texas. Bailey returned to Alexandria at age 21, reportedly on foot, after he was freed in 1863. He later founded seven churches. Anne Bailey Rose, his daughter (then age 94; she died in 1989), dedicated the plaque placed on the building.

J. Peter Dunston, trustee, sold the building in October 1997 to the Northern Virginia Urban League, a nonprofit social service organization, for $925,000. (1997 Alexandria Deed Book 1617:1878)

The League used the building for offices and in February 2008 opened the Freedom House Museum in the building’s basement to focus on the domestic slave trade that operated there from 1828 to 1861.

In February 2018, the Alexandria City Council made a $63,000 loan to the League to assist them with financial difficulties. As part of the agreement, the Office of Historic Alexandria partnered with the League to operate the basement museum. 

In 2019 the League advertised the building for sale as a residence or offices for $2.1 million.

The City of Alexandria acquired the building, rear parking lot, and basement museum exhibit from the League on March 24, 2020, for $1.8 million with plans to preserve and interpret the landmark for future generations. (2020 Alexandria Deed Book 4779:82)