When Henry and Ken found the building, it was in less-than-pristine condition. More accurately, it was close to being a ruin. The building had no water, no heating or air conditioning, a hand-operated elevator, dirt floors, boards over the windows, and one light-bulb on each level. The men did most of the renovations themselves. The brick was all original salmon brick, known to be very crumbly. Henry remembers he would walk into the store to start the day’s work and find a large section of the brick wall had collapsed into a heap of rubble in the middle of the floor. They had to point-up the wall, which means putting concrete in between the bricks to make it more stable.They also poured and leveled a concrete floor on the first level, put plywood down on the second level, built the back staircase, ran pipes from outside into the building for water, and replaced all the missing glass in the first-floor windows. Henry refers to Ken as “the handy man” and himself as “the grunt labor,” but in hindsight neither one would have been considered as a host of This Old House. Still, they made up for a lack of technical skill with hard work, and they did hire an electrician and a heating and air conditioning specialist when needed.
One of the last things they did was call a locksmith to open a large 4 foot wide by 4 foot tall metal safe that was near the entrance.
They had all speculated about what might or might not have been in it. When they got the safe open, they found their prize: a 1940 nickel. That’s what Henry calls “putting your money away.”
When the shop opened, the sign read “The Picture Place.” It was a gallery and custom framing shop. The first floor was the gallery with fine art prints, the second a workshop.
Old Town at the time was nothing like what we see today, now that it has become a historic neighborhood and tourist destination with scores of shops and restaurants. The Old Town Boutique District was not even a glimmer in anyone’s eye. In fact, when The Christmas Attic opened, hardly any retailers or restaurants were anywhere nearby. Across the street was Dockside, a direct importer, and next door was a restaurant called Kings Landing where, rumor has it, Frank Sinatra once grabbed lunch. A few of Old Town’s favorite restaurants like The Fish Market and Landini Brothers moved in shortly after The Picture Place opened, but Alexandria was still a pretty sleepy place.
