History on the Hill: Willow Oak

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

Bill and Linda Dickinson’s home on North Quaker Lane is bestowed with the name “Willow Oak,” but Bill believes a more apt name would be “The Poker House.”

A small plaque by the front door reads, “Willow Oak,” a reference to the large tree growing in the corner of the front yard.“When the kids were teenagers, we took a tour in England. And every palace over there has a name,” Bill said. “So the kids came back and said, ‘You know, it’s one thing being 805 Quaker Lane, but why don’t we give a name to our home?’ So they chose Willow Oak to memorialize the big tree.”

However, the game of poker plays a dominant role in the property’s history.

“This house has been traded back and forth three times in a poker game.,” Bill said. “We ought to call it the poker house.”

The property and surrounding area originally belonged to John Howard, who received it as a land grant from the king of England. Howard played poker with Elmer Spittle, who ran a pharmacy in Old Town. When Howard ran out of stakes during a game in 1921, he put up the piece of property where the house now stands, and lost to Spittle. Spittle built the house in 1922.

At some point, likely in the 1930s, Spittle was playing a poker game with a Judge Nevins. Nevins won the house. He never lived in the home, instead leasing it out to tenants including students at the Virginia Theological Seminary. The original home only had one bathroom for all occupants.

Judge Nevins had been abroad and returned from Italy in 1946. He then rented the home to Maj. Gen. William T. Thurman. After Nevins died, in 1949, Thurman bought the house and lot and began making improvements on the house, which was in a dilapidated state at the time. Thurman added a carport to the back of the home and two additional bathrooms, and removed the front porch.

The original house included the lot to the south and a large rose garden to the side, which were lost by Thurman in a poker game, Bill said.

The Thurmans sold the home in 1968. The home then went through a variety of owners, with the Dickinsons buying it in 1978 and proceeding with major remodeling.

The original part of the house is the front living room, dining room and two second-story bedrooms. It was expanded in the back over the years, an area which now features the kitchen and a large family room.

In the 1980s, architect David Kemnitzer performed extensive renovations of the home, including adding the new kitchen, great room and garage. The house is made of cypress, which reduces rot but means the homeowners over the generations have had to add extra supports in the basement to reinforce sagging cypress beams. The floors in the living room and dining room are original planks of heart of pine.

The home is surrounded by a tidy picket fence. Before the Dickinsons bought the house, they took a trip through New England and became fascinated by the white picket fences they saw, especially Linda.

“One of the first orders of business was to build the dang picket fence,” Bill said with a laugh. “So that’s why that picket fence is out there.”

The Dickinsons love the light of the house — there are a few skylights toward the back — and enjoy the outdoor “rooms,” including the side porch with a breakfast nook and the slate patio stretching toward the back lawn.

The front of the house faces a vast expanse of lawn with towering trees at the theological seminary. “Our front yard is the seminary,” Linda said.

Linda, a tour guide and tour operator, loves the light and the spaciousness of the large rooms in the home. “I like the convenience of being on Quaker Lane,” she said. “It’s really easy to get to shopping or to commute into town, and the location is good for the work I do. … And I really enjoy the garden. We’ve worked on it for over 30 years, and that brings me great joy.”

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