History on the Hill: The ‘Two over Two’

This article is the fourth in a five-part series of historic homes in the Seminary Hill area of Alexandria.

The home of David Giammittorio and his wife, Roberta, on Fort Williams Parkway is a part of living history.

The house was built in 1856. It’s a “two over two” — which refers to the placement of the windows — with a side hall and flounder wing. It was built as a summer home for the family of Harriet Stewart, the great-granddaughter of Richard Henry Lee, who signed the Declaration of Independence, and great-grand-niece of Henry “Lighthorse Harry” Lee, father of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Coming from a rich, landed family, Stewart had lived on Chantilly Plantation prior to her marriage to a wealthy merchant. They moved to what is now known as the Lee-Fendall House in Old Town.

“When you walk in, you will be taken by the fact that this house is just the same,” David said. “Well, this is the summer house that was built at the same time that they redid their house, about 1856. So obviously the same artisans worked on the same houses.”

One unusual feature of the house is that the large downstairs windows raise up through the ceiling. Originally, the home had a front porch, so the family could walk straight out through the windows and onto the porch in the heat of the southern summers.

After the family died out, the house went into a trust, which rented it to Virginia Theological Seminary for student housing.

David, an OB/GYN, bought the house in 1982 under unusual circumstances. He was passing the house on the way to the hospital when he spotted the house with a “For Sale” sign. The house had suffered some neglect, including a number of broken window panes.

“I was in a hurry, because I was on the way to the hospital to deliver a baby, and I said, ‘You don’t know me, and I can appreciate the fact that this sounds a little odd, but I’ll buy this house — I just must go right now.’ So I went up to the hospital and delivered the baby, and I knew the man who owned the company that the Realtor worked for, and I got him and arranged for the purchase of the house,” he said.

David and Roberta were engaged at the time, and he bought the house without consulting her. “I brought her up to the house and said, ‘See this beautiful house?’ And it looked terrible, and I said, ‘And we won’t need air conditioning because we have beautiful high ceilings.’ Her comment was, ‘No air conditioning, no wedding.’ So this house is extremely well air-conditioned.”

The couple has been the only occupants to modernize the house, including adding the air conditioning and a carriage house and remodeling the kitchen and bathrooms. The same master carpenter has performed all the renovations on the house for 25 years.

The home still has original floors, doors and fireplaces.

“We’ve had a lot of fun here,” Roberts said. “It’s a great Christmas house. We’ve had lots of neighborhood Christmas parties here when all the kids were growing up. We’ve just enjoyed every bit of this house. … It’s a real fun family place.”

The brick home is just under 4,000 square feet and has two stories, four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a wine cellar and five fireplaces.

The home features a card table original to the house and reproductions of portraits of the original owners. Much of the wood floors are original, made of heart of pine that have never been sanded or refinished.

The back door opens onto a large patio made of slate and a landscaped backyard with a fish pond and fountain.

The ceilings in the living room are just short of 11 feet tall, and windows are almost as long. Many of the glass panes in the windows are original to the home — except for the ones that were broken when David bought the house, of course.

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