Although the couple who previously owned the Alexandria house for 25 years used it for most of that time as a full-time residence, Mr. Sammis has used it mainly as a pied-à-terre since buying it for $135,000 in 1990. “I used to walk by it every day when I worked near here,” he said, “and when it was listed in the paper, I knew right away what house it was. I bought it the first day it was shown.”

“I thought having something unique and historic would be fun,” he said. “And it was near my office at the time.” His primary home then was a colonial in McLean, Va.

Ms. Sammis, who is a commercial real estate agent, finally got to see the house on a date with Mr. Sammis, “one of our early dates.” They were married in a nearby church last July and held a post-reception gathering at the house for about 25 people. “You have to use the garden,” Mr. Sammis said, referring to a walled patio that is 7 feet wide and about 12 feet deep.

Their primary residence is only 20 or 25 minutes away, a 3,200-square-foot town house in North Arlington, a leafy Washington suburb. That house is about a mile from IMN Solutions, which Mr. Sammis founded in 1982; it is an association and meeting management company that serves 86 nonprofit organizations.

His work and the 21st century can be left at the door of the Spite House. Mr. Sammis said that the house was in pretty good shape when he bought it, but that he wanted to take it back to a more original look. So a friend, Matt Hannan, who had redone the patio space for him, took on the interior as well, adding period details and highlighting original elements like the brick walls and the wood floors. Mr. Hannan put the heating and cooling system in the tiny attic space and moved the water heater out of the kitchen and into an upstairs closet. Another upstairs closet conceals a stacked washer-dryer unit.