The builder will tell you that the Henry is in Old Town Alexandria and this is almost completely true. But the truth of that statement that really comes down to how you define Old Town.

If you define Old Town as the 22314 Zip Code then the Henry is in Old Town without question. Addresses in 22314 run from Slaters Lane in the North, along the Potomac and down to the Beltway. The western boundary of this zip code runs along the train tracks over toward Telegraph Road. That means that 22314 includes the Carlyle District (which is anything but “old”), Potomac Greens (a fairly new subdivision), and other parts of the city which are not really historic Old Town Alexandria. Please reference the map provided by Yahoo to get an idea of the subtle differences in the Old Town area.

This map is provided by Yahoo! Please click the image to see the map on Yahoo.

If you look close at the map, you’ll see that Yahoo divides the 22314 Zip code into these neighborhoods:

• Old Town North — Home to Canal Place, Abingdon Row, Watergate of Alexandria, Old Town North mostly looks like Old Town, but most homes here date from after 1980 and 1990.
• Northeast Alexandria — This is an area of tightly-packed colonial-style townhomes that were built in the 1980′s in developments like Nethergate. There are also newer communities straddling Slaters Lane like Potomac Greens and Old Town Crescent.
• Braddock Road Metro — This is the neighborhood where the Henry is located. More below.
• Old Town — This is the heart of Old Town. It’s where you’ll find the shops homes and restaurants that make Old Town such a desirable place to live.
• Southwest Quadrant — This is a neighborhood composed mostly of modest brick rowhouses and townhouses that were constructed in the middle of the last century. These well-built, conveniently situated homes have little cachè that you’ll find in the waterfront homes and stately villas in Old Town.
• Eisenhower East — The Carlyle area is mostly newly built high-rises surrounding the campus of the USPTO.

I don’t know if these neighborhood names are constructs of some data provider for Yahoo or if they are from some census-related information, but these little neighborhoods are fairly accurately defined even if they don’t exactly match-up to what people call them here on the ground. The Henry is in Braddock Road Metro in an area that included some of the least desirable addresses in this Zip code. This neighborhood is well-served by the Braddock Road Metro Station and that’s always a big plus to real estate values in Northern Virginia. Many homes here are just a few blocks from King Street and a pick-up point for the King Street Trolley, so the question is what made this neighborhood less desirable?

Firstly the big obvious difference is the waterfront. One of the elements of life that makes Old Town living special is proximity to the Potomac River. Ford’s Landing, Cameron Mews and the Torpedo Factory offer homes that are at or near the water’s edge and the Mount Vernon Trail. The Henry is not close to the waterfront and you’ll have to cross a couple of busy streets to get to the Potomac.

The next difference is access to King Street. People like living a few paces from King Street because there are so many restaurants and boutiques along King Street. This is even more true at thew waterfront. The Henry is only a few blocks from King Street so that is a plus. The Braddock Road neighborhood has almost nothing of commercial interest, whereas Old Town, Carlyle, and even Slater’s Lane have some interesting options for shopping and dining. This may change as the neighborhood develops but for now, it is what it is.

The next big difference is public housing. The 22314 zip code has long had a cluster of public housing that straddled Route 1 (Patrick and Henry Streets) and much of that housing was/is located in close proximity to the Braddock Road Metro. About 10 years ago a large chunk of Alexandria’s public housing was destroyed and redeveloped as Chatham Square. That development was so successful that the city is now pushing forward with Old Town Commons. To that end blocks of subsidized housing have been destroyed to make way for Old Town Commons. Until that construction is completed I expect that the appearance and value of the neighborhood will be diminished.

Lastly, this area was (like much of Old Town North and even Old Town) formerly a light-industrial neighborhood. For example the Torpedo Factory was at one time a place where actual torpedoes were built. Today the Torpedo Factory Art Center and the Torpedo Factory condos occupy the same space and some of Alexandria’s priciest real estate. Time will tell if the transition is as remarkable at the Henry, but the odds are in favor of this becoming a successful and highly desirable neighborhood.

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The street view of the Henry looks almost surreal it’s so pleasant, but turn the map to view across the street and you’ll see the warehouses. The good news is that one day these will probably be gone. The bad news is that what replaces them will probably block the view.