318 South Fairfax Street
Where Bright Colors and Lively Patterns Play
The patriarch of one of Alexandria’s leading families, James Green (1801-1880), built this townhouse, originally two stories high. The Green family was a famous high-end furniture manufacturer based in Alexandria from 1817-1887. The desk in Appomattox Courthouse on which Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant was made by the James Green Furniture Factory on Prince Street. In 1848, Green, one of the wealthiest men in town, had acquired the grand Carlyle House mansion on 121 North Fairfax Street.
This 1843 townhouse with a plain rectangular fanlight — influenced by the Greek Revival architectural movement — stands out from the more widespread semicircular Federal-style door fanlights of Old Town. When this house was constructed, Alexandrians had mostly left behind fanlights with delicate webbing and semicircle shapes — which decorate the doors at both 512 and 711 Prince Street on today’s Homes Tour — in an embrace of Greek Revival’s straight lines.
Why? Borrowing elements from ancient Greek architecture, such as the Doric pilasters framing the door, was an expression of the sense that our newly formed nation was the spiritual descendant of Greece, the birthplace of democracy. This style was popular from 1825 to 1860, right up to the Civil War, until architects tired of the rectangles and straight lines and started to explore the curves of other Romantic styles, such as Italianate and Second Empire.
The house was expanded in the 1950s, and a significant first floor addition (new kitchen, family room, powder room) was added in 2020 by RJS Builders and architect Patrick Camus.
The starkly beautiful white exterior does not hint at what lies behind the green door. The décor is a riot of color punctuated with a vibrant ceramic collection (by ceramicist Jill Rosenwald) that one of the homeowners, Susan Nelson, an interior designer, uses to energize the interior.
As art collectors, Susan and John Nelson’s paintings reflect their love of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and includes pieces from Alexandria and other Virginia galleries. The piece de resistance of their curated collection is a painting by the sought-after Pennsylvania Impressionist Walter Baum (1885 -1956) from Bucks County.
Visit the living room to find out what this homeowner has in common with actress Brooke Shields.