In Loving Memory of Kate Waller Barrett, 1859-1925 First President American Legion Auxiliary Department of Virginia 1922 National President American Legion Auxiliary 1923
▼▲▼▲▼
This Tablet . . . — — Map (db m72401) HM
African Americans established "The Fort," a community that continued here after the Civil War (1861-1864) for nearly a century into the Civil Rights Era of the 1960s. The place received its name from The Fort's location around the remnants of . . . — — Map (db m149722) HM
George Washington's 1749 Survey shows this lot fronting the Potomac River.
The original house on this site was built in 1783. It was destroyed in the great fire of January 18, 1827, which consumed 53 houses and numerous outbuildings in Old Town. . . . — — Map (db m71794) HM
Text, upper half of marker panel:
This house, built by Emmanuel Jones by 1888, stands at the corner of a block that witnessed the extremes of 19th century African American experience. From a slave trading company to significant . . . — — Map (db m46124) HM
Under this plaza is the concrete floor of a gas station, the construction of which desecrated many graves. The flooring was kept in place to protect the graves that may remain below. — — Map (db m188799) HM
Built in 1880, 204 South Royal Street was originally the site of the Concordia Hotel. Commissioned by Jacob Borhaus, the Concordia incorporated every modern convenience. The original hotel entrance was located on Royal Street. A two story wing . . . — — Map (db m131347) HM
In 1850, William N. McVeigh bought a frame house on this site at public auction. Soon after the purchase, McVeigh had the small house demolished, and construction began on a pair of three-story brick houses. The Alexandria Gazette and . . . — — Map (db m146441) HM
Built in 1941 for World War II workers at the Torpedo Factory on the Potomac River in Alexandria, the Chinquapin Village War Housing Project was designed with a series of courts radiating from the circular road present today. Four to six duplexes . . . — — Map (db m150804) HM
Three roads formed this Fairfax County intersection by the early 19th century. Braddock Road, Middle Turnpike (later called Leesburg Pike/King Street/Route 7) and Quaker Lane were the wagon routes for trade between the port town of Alexandria and . . . — — Map (db m150816) HM
Civil War Dead
An estimated 700,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died in the Civil War between April 1861 and April 1865. As the death toll rose, the U.S. government struggled with the urgent but unplanned need to bury fallen Union . . . — — Map (db m92115) HM
People have lived and worked along Taylor Run for thousands of years. The first Alexandrians probably walked along the stream bank at least 10,000 years ago. These early peoples lived in small, mobile bands and subsisted through hunting and . . . — — Map (db m150807) HM
1880
On September 1, 1880 the Old Dominion Boat Club (ODBC) was organized to combine physical fitness and sport with a social atmosphere. The members built their first clubhouse on May 1, 1881 located on the Strand between Duke and . . . — — Map (db m195594) HM
Did you know that you traverse the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia when you cross this bridge? The brass lines in the walkway mark the boundaries. They also commemorate the cooperation required to build this bridge.
Follow the . . . — — Map (db m140997) HM
Alexandria's Changing Shoreline
In 1749 the town of Alexandria was laid out on 10 to 15 foot bluffs around a crescent of shallow water. The back edge of John Carlyle's property, where you are standing now, was about 15 feet above the Potomac . . . — — Map (db m129171) HM
During World War I (1914-1918), the U.S. government targeted Jones Point as the site for a private shipyard, one of 111 built to aid the war effort. The Virginia Shipbuilding Corporation yard, constructed just before war's end, was designed to build . . . — — Map (db m127780) HM
[Plaque on the left side of the entrance:]
From the establishment of Alexandria in 1749 to the present time, African Americans have been a vibrant part of this city's history. The City of Alexandria would not exist in its present form were . . . — — Map (db m131547) HM
The Civil War (1861-1865) opened the door for opportunity and civil rights for African American Virginians, about 90 percent of whom were enslaved in 1860. The upheaval from battles and the federal presence in Alexandria and eastern Fairfax . . . — — Map (db m149734) HM
“Alexandria is ours,” declared Col. Orlando Wilcox of the 1st Michigan Vol. Inf. as his regiment captured the city on the morning of May 24, 1861. When Virginia's vote of secession became effective, Union forces immediately crossed the . . . — — Map (db m159) HM
13,000 years ago
The Paleoindian Period
A Native American hunter during the Paleoindian period discards a broken spear point, on a bluff overlooking a tributary to the Potomac River at the southern edge of present-day Alexandria. . . . — — Map (db m166409) HM
Erected 1785, Chartered by the General Assembly of Virginia 1786, with the following trustees:
George Washington
William Brown
John Fitzgerald
William Baker
Samuel Hanson
William Hartshorne
Benjamin Dulany
David Stuart
Charles . . . — — Map (db m175873) HM
On 17 Dec. 1785, George Washington endowed a school here in the recently established Alexandria Academy for the purpose of educating orphan children. In 1812, an association of free African Americans founded its own school here in space vacated by . . . — — Map (db m813) HM
The rails embedded in the brick sidewalk along this block of Fayette Street come from the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railroad. Chartered in 1864 and completed to Quantico by 1872, this rail line ran in the street and spurred industrial growth in . . . — — Map (db m115685) HM
The launch of urban renewal in 1965 led to a boom of archaeological discoveries in Alexandria's Old and Historic District. As buildings were razed exposing artifact-laden layers of history, community outcry demanded that the City address and halt . . . — — Map (db m115770) HM
This is the original entrance to the Robert H. Robinson Library, built in 1940 as the segregated facility for Alexandria's African American residents. — — Map (db m188812) HM
Buried beneath this canal stone lies Lock #3 of the Alexandria Canal, which connected the Harbor of Alexandria with the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in Georgetown, D.C. between 1843 and 1886. After Crossing the Potomac on an aqueduct bridge near the . . . — — Map (db m80668) HM
The Alexandria Canal officially opened on December 2, 1843. The seven-mile long canal extended from the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in Georgetown to Alexandria's ports on the Potomac River. Boats brought coal, limestone, iron ore, port and . . . — — Map (db m147123) HM
“Alexandria is ours,” declared Col. Orlando Wilcox of the 1st Michigan Infantry as his regiment captured the city on the morning of May 24, 1861, one day after Virginia officially left the Union. Due to its strategic location on the . . . — — Map (db m152570) HM
On August 21, 1939, five young African-American men, William Evans, Edward Gaddis, Morris Murray, Clarence Strange and Otto Tucker entered the Barrett Library, then a whites-only segregated, public facility. When they requested library cards and . . . — — Map (db m195649) HM
On 21 August 1939, five young African American men applied for library cards at the new Alexandria Library to protest its whites-only policy. After being denied, William Evans, Edward Gaddis, Morris Murray, Clarence Strange, and Otto L. Tucker each . . . — — Map (db m82774) HM
Securing the Capital
On May 24, 1861, Gen. Winfield Scott ordered eleven regiments of Union troops from Washington, D.C., across the Potomac River, where they captured Arlington and Alexandria.
After their defeat in July at Manassas, . . . — — Map (db m92113) HM
This structure stands on the site of a late eighteenth-century brick dwelling, part of a complex owned by John Wise and leased to John Gadsby, both noted Alexandria tavern keepers.
The Alexandria Post No. 24, American Legion, purchased the . . . — — Map (db m129180) HM
Three railroads developed in Alexandria during the mid-19th century, a period of limited industrial expansion for the City. Alexandrians had a invested heavily in the Alexandria Canal which opened in 1843, giving the city access to the rich . . . — — Map (db m72379) HM
Chartered A.D. 1788
Destroyed by Fire May 19, A.D. 1871
Rebuilt A.D. 1874
Adolf Cluss - Architect
This plaque mounted in cooperation with the City of Alexandria
by the Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22
Ancient Free and . . . — — Map (db m69947) HM
Alexandrians created waterfront land by banking out the shoreline using timber cribbing and old ships including three discovered on this site.
For over two centuries this land embodied Alexandria's working waterfront with an evolving mix of . . . — — Map (db m204474) HM
Alexandria was established by Virginia's colonial assembly in 1749, over four decades the U.S. Congress authorized creation of a national capital on the banks of the Potomac River. Once the final site for the Federal city was selected by President . . . — — Map (db m141166) HM
Wording on stone tablet to left:
Alexandria, Virginia
County seat of Fairfax 1742-1800
Organized 13th July, 1749
Incorporated by the Assembly of Virginia 1779
Ceded to the Federal Government 1789
First boundary . . . — — Map (db m167068) HM WM
Alfred Street Baptist Church is home to the oldest
African American congregation in Alexandria,
dating to the early 19th century. It has served as a
prominent religious, educational, and cultural
institution. In 1818, the congregation, then . . . — — Map (db m14623) HM
Whether going to their workplace, a vacation getaway or war, generations of passengers have embarked on journeys and were welcomed home at the Alexandria Union Station. It exemplifies the time when railroads were the dominant means of . . . — — Map (db m152574) HM
This building, originally built as a bottling plant for the Robert Portner Brewing Company in 1912, was purchased along with the land surrounding it by the American National Red Cross in the spring of 1941. It served as the organization's Eastern . . . — — Map (db m134971) HM
Small groups of people occupied a temporary camp here between 4,500 and 3,200 years ago. This era, called the Late Archaic by archaeologists, is characterized by changes in lifestyle. Growing numbers of people seasonally gathered in larger . . . — — Map (db m214232) HM
In honor and memory of our colleagues in the security profession whose lives were lost in the performance of their duty on September 11th in New York, and all others who have been called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice, ASIS International . . . — — Map (db m131393) WM
Established in 1792, this was the first financial institution authorized by the General Assembly of Virginia. The building was completed in 1807. It is one of the oldest surviving commercial structures in Alexandria and is a fine local example of . . . — — Map (db m81250) HM
The Alexandria Library's Kate Waller Barrett Branch (2 blocks north, 1 block east) and the Alexandria Black History Museum (6 blocks north) have an unusual shared history. The library building was constructed in 1938 and named for Dr. Kate Waller . . . — — Map (db m115715) HM
Between 1911 and 1912, Battery Cove, the shallow bay extending from the southern edge of Keith's Wharf southward to Jones Point, was [unreadable] for the Civil War Battery Rodgers and was used as a small [unreadable] for an extensive dredging . . . — — Map (db m127768) HM
Historical Site Defenses of Washington 1861-1865 Battery Rodgers
Here stood Battery Rodgers, built in 1863 to prevent enemy ships from passing up the Potomac River. The battery had a perimeter of 30 yards and mounted five 200 pounder Parrott . . . — — Map (db m41413) HM
This property
has been listed on the
National Register
of Historic Places
by the United States
Department of the Interior
Bayne-Fowle House
1854
[Additional plaques above:]
The Bayne-Fowle House
has been . . . — — Map (db m134975) HM
Henry A. Crump 60th Inf William M. David 62nd Inf George W.L. Francis 7th Cav William H. Haws 8th Inf George W. Herndon 13th Inf Elias M. Herring 18th Inf Elijah F. Hutchison 6th Cav Edward S. Jett 56th Inf John J. Knoxville 9th . . . — — Map (db m150721) HM WM
Brown, Alexander H. Carter, Merriwether T. Darley, William Jones, George W. Lawler, John Joseph Lewis, William L. Pitts, Henry Segar Pitts, Robert Tyler Proctor, John J. Roland, Richard N. Sutherland, John W. Turner, Albert . . . — — Map (db m150723) HM WM
African Americans escaping slavery found refuge in Alexandria after Union troops occupied the city in 1861. The Rev. Clement “Clem” Robinson established the First Select Colored School in 1862. Hundreds of students registered for day and . . . — — Map (db m98079) HM
Two bombproofs, each measuring 200 feet long by 12.5 feet wide, were located in the center of Fort Ward. During normal operations the bombproofs were used as meeting rooms, storage facilities, and sometimes as a prison. In the event of an attack, . . . — — Map (db m7716) HM
(North Side):
This monument marks the trail taken by the army of General Braddock which left Alexandria on April 20, 1755 to defend the western frontier against the French and Indians.
Erected by the Society of Colonial Dames of . . . — — Map (db m7567) HM
John Tucker's small factory at Broomilaw Point was one of several brickyards that operated in the City of Alexandria. Park Agnew and M.B. Harlow bought the brickworks in 1890, expanding and mechanizing Tucker's small operation. By 1890, the . . . — — Map (db m127763) HM
Brigadier General Montgomery D. Corse, CSA
Born here in 1816, died Alexandria 1895.
Volunteer, Mexican War 1846-1848.
Prospector in California,
Commander, 17th Virginia Infantry Regiment, CSA.
Post-war civic leader and banker.
Buried . . . — — Map (db m65489) HM
Potomac Yard was located between Washington D.C. and Alexandria because the site already served as the confluence of many shipping routes; was centrally located on the eastern seaboard; and would alleviate troublesome train congestion from . . . — — Map (db m115669) HM
Josiah Watson, a wealthy merchant and postmaster of Alexandria, established his 272-acre plantation, “Bush Hill”, in 1791. Richard Marshall Scott purchased the plantation in 1791; his family stayed here for 200 years. Scott was an . . . — — Map (db m2610) HM
This land was once part of more than 1,100 acres acquired by the Terrett family by the mid-19th century. Within Fairfax County until annexed by the City of Alexandria in 1952, the area was primarily agricultural fieldsd and woodlands here before . . . — — Map (db m214230) HM
Built 1816-18 by
Capt. James McGuire
Occupied for much of his
Alexandria ministry by
Rev. Samuel Cornelius, Pastor
First Baptist Church, 1824-41
Restored 1964-65 by
Mr. & Mrs. John Page Elliott — — Map (db m66551) HM
Captain Rocky Versace Plaza
and
Vietnam Veterans Memorial
[In the center of the memorial:]
★ My son is ★ was ★ he often did ★ does ★ his eyes are ★ were brown ★
Tere Rios Versace . . . — — Map (db m115677) WM
This unique building, constructed of stone and set back from the street, was built by John Carlyle, a British merchant and one of the original founders of Alexandria. Witness to both domestic life and war, today the house stands as a museum . . . — — Map (db m156562) HM
This modest, wood-frame building has played an important role in the segregated history of Alexandria. During World War II, the federal government encouraged women to join the war effort by providing safe and affordable day care. In Alexandria, . . . — — Map (db m129190) HM
Just two blocks north of this location along Fayette Street (named for the Marquis de Lafayette who visited Alexandria in 1824), near the southwest corner of Queen Street, stood the Old Powder House, dating from 1791-1809. On the same spot, the . . . — — Map (db m115713) HM
Travel the Chinquapin Trek
The Chinquapin trek takes you back in time. Interpretive signs discuss the process associated with the formation of Taylor Run and forest succession. Illustration of trees, plants and wildlife assist you in . . . — — Map (db m150802) HM
Before the American Revolution, the Church of England was the established church of Virginia and part of the colonial government. For administrative purposes, the colony was divided into "parishes" and all residents paid taxes to maintain church . . . — — Map (db m115716) HM
Civil War Comes to Carlyle House
If you stood in this spot 150 years ago, you would be inside a building! In 1848 James Green purchased Carlyle House and the building in front of you, the first Bank of Alexandria. He turned it into a hotel . . . — — Map (db m129170) HM
This historic site is a section of the mill race that provided water power to Cloud's Mill which stood directly across Paxton street.
At the intersection of Beauregard and Morgan Streets, water diverted from the Holmes Run ran through the . . . — — Map (db m150801) HM
An archeological investigation was conducted in 2007 and 2008 to find and protect the cemetery's remaining graves. City archaeologists discovered an American Indian site in this area with a broken quartzite fragment fro a 13,000-year-old spear . . . — — Map (db m188802) HM
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, this land was part of a larger parcel owned by Colonel Francis Peyton and the land was later inherited by his son, Lucien. In 1851, Lucien Peyton sold this property, depicted on the 1845 map of Alexandria, . . . — — Map (db m115704) HM
This house was built between 1784-1786 by Colonel Michael Swope, a Revolutionary War Battalion Commander, and his wife, Eva Kuhn Swope. Originally from York, PA, Colonel Swope was taken prisoner by the British at the beginning of the war and was . . . — — Map (db m149717) HM
For over a century, this two-acre block was occupied by a mansion known as Colross. Built in 1800 by John Potts, the mansion, with its outbuildings, gardens, orchard, and a "clover lot" was in effect a small plantation.
Colross's owners . . . — — Map (db m72384) HM
"How sleep the brave who sink to rest
By all their country's wishes blest"
Beneath this mound lie the remains of thirty-four
Confederate Soldiers
Which were disinterred from the Alexandria Soldiers' Cemetery (Federal) and reinterred . . . — — Map (db m129286) HM WM
The Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial is dedicated to honoring more than 1,700 people of African descent buried here during and following the Civil War, as well as those who may have been laid to rest after the cemetery officially . . . — — Map (db m77244) HM WM
Seeking freedom and a chance to begin a new life thousands of African Americans fleeing slavery flooded Civil War-era Alexandria. The city was quickly overwhelmed, and as living conditions grew dire, many perished from disease and deprivation. In . . . — — Map (db m86652) HM
Charles W. Hill was born on February 22, 1949, in Suffolk County, New York. Charlie, as he was known to his friends, grew up on Long Island where he met his wife, Virginia. They married in 1971. Charlie was hired as a New York City Police Officer . . . — — Map (db m115684) HM
Courtesy of Bethel Cemetery,
Est. 1885
on whose grounds rests ten members of Col. John Singleton Mosby's Rangers, 43rd BN CSA. The area of Northern Virginia was known during the war and ever since as Mosby's Confederacy
Ayre, George . . . — — Map (db m150722) HM WM
This area, called "Cross Canal," was a neighborhood of black residents who settled across from the canal shortly after the Civil War. The canal, located just north of this marker, extended from the Potomac River to Washington Street, thence north to . . . — — Map (db m129476) HM
The Potomac Yard site has historically been an intersection for transportation because of its location between Washington D.C. and Alexandria and the availability of open, level land near the river. Even before Potomac Yard was built, the . . . — — Map (db m115667) HM
In 1791, surveyors on Jones Point began to lay out the ten-mile square that would become Washington, D.C. The first marker for the survey—the south cornerstone—was set in place on this spot. Although the stone within this protective . . . — — Map (db m60162) HM
The Douglass Cemetery Association was founded in 1895 as a non-denominational, segregated cemetery for Alexandria's African American community. The Douglass Cemetery is named in memory of Frederick Douglass, who was an American abolitionist, . . . — — Map (db m140586) HM
Dr. Bernard Stier, O.D. (1930-2005), practiced optometry at this address from the late 1950s to 1998. Dr. Stier moved his practice here after practicing at 716 King Street with his uncle, Dr. Moses Katz, O.D. (1913-1957). A longtime Alexandrian, Dr. . . . — — Map (db m115717) HM
Betty King was a scientist, teacher, community activist, photographer, mother, grandmother, neighbor, and friend who lived in the Hume Springs neighborhood in north Alexandria from the early 1980's until she passed away in her home on Mark Drive on . . . — — Map (db m130985) HM
On December 31, 1783, George Washington was feted here by the Gentlemen of Alexandria celebrating his triumphant return from the Revolutionary War. — — Map (db m191971) HM
Earl Lloyd, a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer, grew up on this block, attended the segregated Parker-Gray High School, and graduated from West Virginia State College. On 31 Oct. 1950, as a member of the Washington Capitols, he became the . . . — — Map (db m195657) HM
During the 17th century, settlers began to establish small plantations near landing places on the Potomac River. Oceangoing ships could load tobacco and other goods to export to Great Britain. The area that was to become Alexandria was still . . . — — Map (db m127772) HM
One of King Street's greatest commercial buildings was built by one of Alexandria's most beloved citizens. Edgar Warfield, Jr. was born in 1842, and at the age of 18 he co-founded the "Old Dominion Rifles," a Confederate militia that served in . . . — — Map (db m115749) HM
Alexandria's electric streetcar system, the Washington, Alexandria & Mount Vernon Railway, was established in 1892 between Alexandria and Mount Vernon. In 1896, the line extended into Washington, crossing the Long Bridge where the 14th Street Bridge . . . — — Map (db m115760) HM
As Planning Director (1977-1984) Engin Artemel led the City of Alexandria in planning for the transformation of its industrial waterfront to one that can be enjoyed by visitors and residents alike. Inspired by beautiful active urban waterfronts in . . . — — Map (db m99596) HM
The Fort Ward entrance gate, completed in May 1865, provided the only access to the interior of the fort. The gate's decorative details include stands of cannonballs and the insignia (castle) of the Army Corps of Engineers which designed and . . . — — Map (db m194339) HM
Episcopal High School, on the hill to the southwest, was founded in 1839 as a boys' preparatory school, one of the first in the South; girls were admitted in 1991. The school was a pioneer in the establishment of student honor codes in preparatory . . . — — Map (db m7559) HM
With Alexandria under British control in August 1814, top-ranking U.S. military men gathered at this high point above the city. President Madison conferred with Secretary of the Navy William Jones, Brigadier General John Hungerford, and U.S. Navy . . . — — Map (db m81243) HM
This stone taken from the canal of the Potomac Company of which Washington and Fitzgerald were Directors commemorates the erection of the First Catholic Church in Virginia, A. D. 1795, which stood until 1839 about twenty feet behind this . . . — — Map (db m79678) HM
Panel 1 - upper middle of east face:
The First Presbyterian Church of Alexandria founded A.D. 1772 House of worship erected 1774. Destroyed by lightning July 20, 1835. Rebuilt on the same lot A.D. 1836.
Panel 2 - . . . — — Map (db m122164) HM
347 entries matched your criteria. The first 100 are listed above. Next 100 ⊳
