1787 house for sale in Alexandria, Va., for nearly $5 million

George Washington's many ties to Alexandria, Va., included friendships with two men who owned the two properties that make up the house and grounds at 210 Duke St., now on the market for $4.99 million.

James Craik, who owned the original Georgian-style 1787 townhouse at 210 Duke St., was a Scottish immigrant and a prominent doctor. Craik met the future first U.S. president during the French and Indian War, and during the Revolutionary War, he rose to the emerging nation's second-highest medical post. After the war, he opened a medical practice at the townhouse, which Washington frequented as a friend and a patient.

Craik was present when Washington died in 1799 at Mount Vernon, where he and two other doctors treated the former president with bloodletting, an ancient practice that was falling out of favor at the time. Craik's connection with the president — and bloodletting — make this Duke Street property a popular stop on several Old Town Alexandria ghost tours.

A separate structure, a "flounder" house (of a type said to resemble the eyeless side of a flatfish) was built at 208 Duke St. in 1794 by George Coryell, a merchant whose family owned the ferry on which Washington made his 1776 Christmas crossing of the Delaware River. Coryell was a pallbearer at Washington's funeral. The flounder house was eventually joined to the townhouse and became part of the property at 210 Duke.

Much has remained unchanged since Coryell and Craik lived there. Local historical preservation groups helped ensure that a 2004 renovation spared the original heart pine floors, along with moldings, mantels, bookcases and staircases.

Also restored was the garden, with its roses, hydrangeas, magnolia trees and blueberry bushes. A stone wall that was the foundation of a former outbuilding was reconstructed. The garden has two brick steps salvaged from a 19th-century renovation of Blair House, the D.C. house used to host guests of the president, according to real estate agent Babs Beckwith, who worked with the architect of the 2004 renovation.

That renovation included the addition of a kitchen, a family room with a vaulted ceiling and built-in bookshelves, and a backyard pool.

The Georgian-style townhouse has four floors above a finished basement and eight fireplaces. The family room and kitchen, added in 2004, are at the rear of the house on the first floor. The first floor also has a parlor, a living room and an office that was Craik's medical office, which is connected to a porch. The walls of the dining room are decorated with a canvas mural depicting the Potomac River in the 18th century.

The second floor has a primary bedroom suite with a sitting room, an en suite bathroom and a walk-in closet that is accessed from stairs outside the bathroom. The second floor has another bedroom with an en suite bathroom.

Three bedrooms on the third and fourth floors share a bathroom on the third floor. The fourth floor has a room that could be used as an office. The lower level has a laundry room, a recreation room and additional storage space.

The property also has an alley, with original 1787 brick, through which horses were led to stables behind the house. Original black iron gates open to the sidewalk in front of the house, and eight handmade copper gas lanterns line the alley and the back of the house.

210 Duke St., Alexandria, Va.

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