510 East Custis Avenue

Cora Sledge sold Del Ray Lot 675, now 510 E Custis, to William Gallahan in March 1917, who sold it to Del Ray real estate investor John R Smith in June 1920. John died in November 1921 but his widow Laura V Smith proved a powerhouse in her own right through the 1920s and 1930s. She held the property, using it as rental and as collateral for mortgages for other investments, until her death in June 1948 at 79 years old.

The property was then sold for the benefit of her heirs to Meyer and Mollie Abraham in May 1949. They sold it to sisters Virginia and Cordella Lincoln in 1953, who sold it to James and Katherine Paul a year later. James Paul, by then a widower, sold it to Earle and Edith DeVault in 1962. Through all this time it served as a rental, the longest tenancy being at of Carl Rich, a machinist at the torpedo factory, and his wife Jane, for ten years from 1935. It has been owner-occupied since 1982, however.

It continues to serve as a truly invaluable, and threatened, component of Del Ray's History.