1409 Wayne (Rang House)

This house, on the corner of Linden (now Nelson) was the last of the three to be sold, having served as a rental for fifteen years. Finally, in July 1924 MB Harlow sold it to John & Mason Rang, recent transplants from York, Pennsylvania.

John had been born in November 1878 and married Florence Mason Walter, six months his junior, in September 1904. They had four children, all daughters, Beatrice (b 1905), Constance (1906), Natalie (1908) and Monica Patrica (1910).

 On arriving in Alexandria John took a position as a clerk with Fruit Grower's Express, a massive organization at the time with over 4,000 pieces of rail rolling stock, many of them refrigerated cars, with their main hubs in Jacksonville, Florida and Alexandria. From those two they controlled a near-monopoly of the shipping of southern fruits to northern markets. Apparently John's job paid well, for he purchased the very nice home at the corner of 6th (now Wayne) and Linden (now Nelson), taking out a $3,000 mortgage, a substantial amount at the time.

 The move and new job may have put stress on the family for John and Mason were granted an uncontested divorced in January 1931 after 26 years of marriage and four kids. John executed a quit-claim deed signing the property over to Mason as part of the divorce and moved back to Pennsylvania. Mason and her four daughters would continue in the house.

 Natalie married Keefer Koogle, a post office employee, in 1929 and moved to Frederick, Maryland, where they had son David and lived until she passed away in 1969. The other three stayed near home.

 Beatrice took a job with People's Life Insurance Co in the late 1920s and remained with that company until retirement. She never married and lived in her mother's house; indeed, in December 1944 Mason sold the house to Beatrice.

 Constance married Arthur Beach, a railyard worker, in February 1927 and they moved into the house on Wayne. They separated in October 1939 and Arthur moved out, while Constance got a clerical job with the State Department.

 Patricia married Bryan O'Dwyer in 1933 and they also moved into the Wayne house. She got work as a “computer operator” while her husband worked in food service. By the end of WW II he operated the Mt. Vernon Deli on Mt Vernon Avenue. That allowed them to move into their own home at 233 E Mason, just a few blocks away.

 Mason, Beatrice and Constance continued to call the house home through the 1950s. In May 1959 Mason finally passed away at age 80 at Arlington Hospital from bronchopneumonia. Daughter Beatrice died in October 1983 at Alexandria Hospital of lung cancer. The last of the sisters, Constance, passed away in 1993 and in May 1994 the house was sold by the Constance Beach Life Estate for $180,000. Thus ended a remarkable 70 years in the same family.