508 East Custis Avenue
Molly passed away in 1953, and the children, no longer living there, sold the house, ending 32 years of Emmets on Custis. The buyers were Daniel O’Flaherty and William Cowhig, who sold it to Harold Fagelson in 1966, and they to Duke Investments in 1967. They all used it as a rental property, notably to James Paul, a bus driver, and his wife Katherine into the early 1960s.
In the 1960s the house was divided into two small apartments, side-by-side, each with two (presumably) tiny bedrooms upstairs, and kitchen/dining/living area downstairs, with an unlocated bathroom. The house provided extremely affordable housing for Del Ray and it lasted surprisingly long. It was finally demolished in 2018 to make room for a new 3,500 square foot house.
WT sold this house in November 1914 to John A Russell, a carpenter, and wife Virginia, who took out a $400 mortage to pay for it. Russell lived there until December 1922, when he sold it to James and Mollie Emmet, who took out a $1,600 mortgage, representing quite an increase in value.
James Emmet was a bit of a mystery. When asked, his wife did not know the names of his father or mother, or his date of birth. He is thought to have been born about 1879 in New York, probably an orphan. He seems to have made the Army a career and by the time the US entered WW I he was a 39-year old Quartermaster sergeant.
The local connection starts when he was transferred out of his 3rd Field Artillery into the newly-formed 12th Field Artillery being formed at Camp St. Asaph in the Town of Potomac (the story of that unit in Del Ray can be found here). The cadre for the new unit were allowed to live off-post as boarders with local families. That appears to have been the case here, for when his unit shipped out for France in January 1918 and returned in February 1919 he listed his hometown as Del Ray, Virginia and his point of contact as Charles and Ona Shaffer on Windsor Avenue. This reinforces the image of an orphan whose life was the Army and moved around as they told him, making few personal connections until he arrived in Del Ray.
On his return he was reduced to corporal, a common event in an Army undergoing drastic reduction in size, and in August 1920 he was discharged. Apparently the Shaffers were not the only local connections, for he immediately returned to Del Ray and married Mollie West. Mollie is also somewhat of a mystery. Mollie Floyd appears to have been born in 1878 in Rockingham county and at some point married George J West. By April 1920 she was living as a widow with her 9-year-old son George H. at her in-laws in Alexandria, and this is presumably where Sergeant Emmet would have met her.
They quickly married and had a son John in January 1922. The four of them, James, Mollie, George and John, lived at 508 E Custis, with James working as a painter, first of houses and then for St Elizabeth’s. Unfortunately, doctors discovered James’ stomach cancer in 1934 and in January 1935 he died of a coronary thrombosis, widowing Molly for the second time. George served in the Marines in WW II, marrying Mary Bryan of 322 Clifford Ave in August 1944. John followed his father’s footsteps into the Army, serving in WW II, Korea and Vietnam.
508 East Custis in 1971, after conversion to a duplex.