Vienna resident Billy Lancaster lives in the doghouse. “So many people used to kid him about it being like a doghouse, so he decided he’d decorate it like one,” said Frank Lancaster, Billy’s father.
Billy Lancaster, however, didn’t have just any doghouse in mind. “I just had this idea of putting a giant Snoopy up there,” he said. Lancaster decorated his house at 230 Church St., with the iconic comic strip beagle and his friend Woodstock.
He cut out the likeness of the dog and bird from paneling that was on its way to the dump. Then he painted them and mounted Snoopy on his roof. Woodstock is supported above the roof, flying down to visit Snoopy.
Billy Lancaster, 40, was born in the house next door, where his father still lives. He can still remember when trains used to rumble along what is now the Washington & Old Dominion trail.
“I’m probably one of the last few old Vienna guys around,” Billy Lancaster said.
The little house, he said, has been something of a Vienna landmark, and when it is on the rental market, he often gets visitors who just want to see the inside.
The house, said Frank Lancaster, was built for the previous owner’s mother-in-law.
Lancaster has gotten many comments from passers-by who have stopped to get a closer look at the unusual Christmas decoration. “If nothing else, I thought it was a good way to slow down traffic on Church Street,” he said.