We love sharing the ordinary items of regular life from extraordinary days. By the time the newspapers were being delivered on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, Japanese ships were gathered close to Hawaii, ready to unleash their surprise attack. That morning, Washingtonians woke up to their coffee, breakfast and newspapers to see the following homes advertised for sale.
First we have one from America University Park. This is the home at 4540 Butterworth Place, for sale that day at $13,950, which is $282,805 today. Not a bad return on your investment since today it’s valued at $1,405,600 according to Zillow.
Here’s the Google Street View of the home today.
Our next one is 1410 Crestwood Drive in Alexandria. Today, the Zestimate lists it at nearly $1.8 million, but back in 1941, it was a steal at $9,950! Amazing.
Here’s what it looks like on Google Street View today, completely transformed and altered.
The last one is one we are trying to do a little research and dig up details on. It’s for a 565 acre Virginia estate, originally designed by architect George Williams and built in 1938. The property was located about 40 miles from DC in the Warrenton countryside.
Within months of Pearl Harbor, wartime rationing had reshaped daily life across the city. By June 1942, Washingtonians were lining up before dawn to fill their gas tanks before stricter federal rationing took effect.
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