A new record for home sales has been set in the City of Alexandria as the historic property known as “Clarens Estate” is officially off the market.
The property at 318 N. Quaker Lane sold for $7.5 million, the highest price a home in the city has sold for, according to Washington Fine Properties. Jaci Appel and Hadley Jones of WFP were the seller’s agents, and Al and Harriet Pricenor of Weichert Realtors represented the buyer.
“The record-setting sale of the Clarens Estate puts Alexandria City on the map as a premier place to live and own luxury property within the broader Washington D.C., real estate market,” Appel and Jones told ALXnow. “Record transactions like this reset market expectations and validate buyers long-term investment confidence.”
The 3.5-acre property was first listed in January 2025 for $11.5 million but real estate records show several price decreases since. According to city real estate records, seller Harriet Lankford bought the home for $1.9 million in 1994 with her late husband Thomas Lankford, an attorney who died in 2024.
According to the Washington Business Journal, the new buyer intends to keep the property as a single-family home.
The property is believed to have once been the site of George Washington’s hunting lodge, before the home was built in 1803. Throughout the years, it was used as a school, Civil War hospital, and residence to George Mason’s grandson, U.S. Senator James Murray Mason. The property listing indicated that Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis met there for a final time in 1870.
The estate is “one of few if not the only home in Alexandria City” with nearly four acres of secluded grounds, the seller’s agents said.
The main house offers seven bedrooms and five and a half bathrooms, and a one-bedroom carriage house, two-story pool house and several outbuildings complete the property. Notable amenities include original hardwood floors, an 1806 Irish mantle, historic beams, a heated pool and jacuzzi, historic brick walls on the grounds and a pond with a footbridge.
“It offers a level of privacy that feels worlds away from Alexandria; when enjoying the pool, pool house, and expansive backyard, the setting evokes the countryside of Middleburg or even the South of France rather than an urban environment,” said Appel and Jones. “Properties of this size and seclusion are extraordinarily rare in Alexandria City, making 318 N. Quaker Lane a once-in-a-generation opportunity—and a landmark sale.”
According to WBJ, the sale broke the previous city record set last year, when the Bayne-Fowle House at 811 Prince Street in Old Town sold for $6 million.
