The 500 block of King Street has long been associated with retail trade in Alexandria. In the late 18th century, Adam Lynn, Sr. owned the quarter-block at this corner of King and St. Asaph Streets, where he operated a small bake shop selling . . . — — Map (db m115746) HM
Alexandria, D.C.
In 1791, Alexandrians applauded their inclusion in the District of Columbia, believing that the town would benefit economically as part of the Federal district. These positive feelings toward inclusion in the District . . . — — Map (db m239716) HM
Potomac River ferry companies date back to as early as 1740, when Hugo West received permission to operate a ferry from the Hunting Creek warehouse in Prince William over the Potomac River to Fraziers Point in Maryland "...the price for a man 1 . . . — — Map (db m143267) HM
An extensive amount of man-made land hides the original topographical feature that characterized the southernmost tip of Alexandria's crescent-shaped bay. This area was known from at least the 1760s as Point Lumley. As it does today, the town . . . — — Map (db m239746) HM
John Hunter established one of the first shipyards in the City at the foot of Wilkes Street as early at 1783. The first "Potomac River Longboat" was built here at Hunters Shipyard in 1815. Shipbuilding and repair continued on this site for well . . . — — Map (db m143370) HM
Early Uses
The West End was a rough and rowdy area just outside Alexandria's city limits. Stockyards, rail tracks, a tavern, and small shops catered to the farmers and drovers supplying the city's markets in the years before the Civil War. . . . — — Map (db m236050) HM
The northern half of this block of Cameron Street, bounded by North Columbus Street on the east and North Alfred Street on the west, was the original site of the Moore-McLean Sugar Refinery. Within this half-acre lot was a five-story structure . . . — — Map (db m67028) HM
The Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum traces one of America's oldest continuously-run family businesses that combined manufacturing, wholesaling and retailing. Founded in 1792, and operated just across Fairfax Street until 1933, the pharmacy . . . — — Map (db m115762) HM
Built circa 1818 by Josiah Hewes Davis (1783-1862), rope maker and ship chandler who operated a rope walk at Jones Point. Purchased in 1847 by William Stabler (1795-1852) as a home for John Leadbeater (1808-1860), his brother-in-law and business . . . — — Map (db m71772) HM
A private residence listed in the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior. Registered as a Virginia Historic Landmark by the Virginia Board of Historic Resources.
Thomas Swann House, 1802-1833. . . . — — Map (db m145963) HM
One of the last and most architecturally important of the industrial facilities constructed on the waterfront was the Alexandria Branch of the Ford Motor Company. Designed by Albert Kahn (1896-1942) and built on wood pilings over the Potomac River . . . — — Map (db m69852) HM
Between 1820 and 1860, Alexandria had a thriving cabinet and furniture-making industry, primarily along King Street, between Royal and Alfred streets. Among the city's best-known furniture makers—and business rivals—were Charles Koones and James . . . — — Map (db m195643) HM
The Alexandria Marine Railway Company was founded in 1849 at the site of the former Keith's Wharf. Until the Depression of 1857, the firm refitted and repaired the sailing craft that plied the harbors of Alexandria, Georgetown and Washington. The . . . — — Map (db m127769) HM
Home to the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association, the Athenaeum is a fine example of Greek Revival architecture, with a long and colorful history of occupation. The building was constructed between 1851 and 1852 as the Bank of the Old Dominion, . . . — — Map (db m115768) HM
The Carlyle House, completed in 1753, was the residence of one of the 18th-century Alexandria's leading citizens—John Carlyle—a prosperous merchant and landowner.
1. Although the earliest known engraving of the Carlyle House appeared . . . — — Map (db m129174) HM
On January 1, 1808, the earliest date allowed by Article I, Section 9 of the United States Constitution, the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves went into effect and stated, "It shall not be lawful to import or bring into the United . . . — — Map (db m188750) HM
The West End in the 19th century centered on Duke Street and Diagonal Road. Large undeveloped, the area was devoted to stockyards, agricultural shipment, and "a" notorious business: the slave trade. The house at 1707 Duke Street (left) was part . . . — — Map (db m151028) HM
On January 22, 1791, George Washington appointed Andrew Ellicott and Benjamin Banneker to survey the boundaries of the "District of Columbia," to be the home of the Federal government of the United States. The President instructed the surveyors to . . . — — Map (db m127771) HM
This Doorway was returned to Gadsby's Tavern From the Metropolitan Museum by Charles Beatty Moore, Colonel. U.S.A. Retired (1881-1951) in 1949 by the Alexandria Assocation. 1949 marked the Bicentennial of Alexandria's Founding. — — Map (db m71777) HM
Underground ice wells were used in the 18th and 19th centuries to store ice for use during the warm months. In Alexandria, blocks of ice were cut from the Potomac River. Ice was placed in this well through a square opening which is marked in the . . . — — Map (db m129196) HM
In 1793, the Alexandria Common Council granted permission for John Wise to build an icehouse underneath the corner of Royal and Cameron Streets as part of his construction of the new City Tavern.
This brick-lined ice well is a unique . . . — — Map (db m243155) HM
Throughout most of the nineteenth century, three buildings stood on this section of 1300 to 1312 King Street, on what previously had been vacant land. The main structures on Lots 1 and 2 have been preserved, whereas the building on Lot 3 was . . . — — Map (db m236062) HM
The pineapple has been a symbol of hospitality since the days of the early American colonies. The legend began with the sea captains of New England, who sailed the Caribbean Islands and returned to the colonies bearing their cargo of fruits, . . . — — Map (db m197473) HM
In 1833, Josiah Davis constructed a narrow, 400-yard-long building where rope was manufactured for ship's rigging, a once-thriving maritime industry for the nearby port of Alexandria.
[Caption:]
The Jones Point ropewalk was a two-story . . . — — Map (db m127774) HM
Three hundred years ago, a river as wide as the Capital Beltway—Great Hunting Creek—emptied into the Potomac River at this spot. In the absence of good roads, this river and its tributaries were vital corridors for travel and trade. . . . — — Map (db m62000) HM
Built in 1839 by the Alexandria Lyceum Company under the leadership of Benjamin Hallowell, this building housed the Alexandria Library and was the scene of concerts, meetings, debates and lectures featuring such speakers as John Quincy Adams and . . . — — Map (db m8607) HM
From this point, King Street slopes gently down to the Potomac. But when Alexandria was founded in 1749, the new town was perched on a high bluff some 20 feet above the river. The town was established on a shore of a crescent-shaped bay that . . . — — Map (db m115766) HM
From 1898 to 1911, a 181-foot-long side wheel steamboat based out of Washington, D.C., called the River Queen would sometimes dock at the wharf at the foot of Prince Street in Alexandria. Build in 1864, it had first gained fame as the site . . . — — Map (db m239733) HM
At the turn of the 20th century, Alexandria was home to at least a dozen pharmacies, two of them associated with the name Timberman. Charles Parke Custis Timberman and other brother John Elmer Winfield Timberman were born near Pohick Church in . . . — — Map (db m115723) HM
Originally called the United States Naval Torpedo Station, the Torpedo Factory was built during World War I, and was specifically designed for the fabrications of dangerous naval ordnance. The building was barely completed when that war ended in . . . — — Map (db m115784) HM
The Naval Torpedo Station construction began on November 12, 1918, the day after the armistice which ended World War I. building One housed machine shops, the dispensary, and a cafeteria, while Building Two held torpedo storage and offices. The . . . — — Map (db m239720) HM
Built for investment in 1797 by
George Washington
Lot purchased by Washington
in 1763
Conveyed by will in 1799 to
Martha Washington — — Map (db m71716) HM
Archaeological Evidence of a Working Seaport
The archaeologists tasked with researching this property on the 200 block of South Union Street used a host of sources such as historic photographs, lithographs, deeds, court cases, newspapers, . . . — — Map (db m195635) HM
The open vistas, recreational fields, or fishing pier may be what drew you to Jones Point Park, but archaeological and historical evidence shows that this land has been attracting people for a multitude of reasons during the last 9,000 years. Over . . . — — Map (db m127766) HM
The Wilkes Street Tunnel was part of the eastern division of the Orange & Alexandria Railroad, founded in 1848 to promote trade with western Virginia. The Orange & Alexandria inaugurated its track in Alexandria on May 7, 1851 with a run from the . . . — — Map (db m143378) 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
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
During the Civil War, thousands of African Americans fled to the Union-controlled city, either moving into government-run freedmen camps; settling into historically black neighborhoods such as the Bottoms, or seeking out affordable housing on the . . . — — Map (db m237644) HM
Populated almost exclusively by Black residents, the racially segregated neighborhood of The Berg evolved by necessity to have its own set of dwellings, amenities, and social institutions. Houses like the "five frame shanties" that stood on this . . . — — Map (db m204836) HM
Neighborhoods function as support networks and knit people together. For Alexandria's Black residents in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, establishing neighborly bonds was essential for survival within a racist, segregated society.
In . . . — — Map (db m204833) HM
Beneath this block lies Lock and Pool No. 2 of the Alexandria Canal. Construction of this seven-mile section of the canal began on the 4th of July, 1831 under the direction of Captain William Turnbull of the U.S. Army Topographical Engineers, and . . . — — Map (db m237641) HM
Located on both sides of Montgomery Street between North Fairfax and North Lee Streets, the Old Dominion Glass Company opened its doors in 1901 to produce high quality soda, beer, and medicine bottles. Along with the Belle Pre Bottle Company, the . . . — — Map (db m237636) HM
This tide lock of the Alexandria Canal was one of four lock that together lowered boats about 38 feet to the Potomac River and raised them for their return trip. The remains of the other locks are now buried under modern construction.
This . . . — — Map (db m129199) HM
Alexandria's First Cotton Factory
On April 19, 1847, the Mount Vernon Manufacturing Company purchased this lot along North Washington Street. The present building on this site was completed a year later in 1848, becoming the city's first . . . — — Map (db m127782) HM
Built 1797 by John Wise, tavern keeper, and his residence, until 1799. Rental property when sold to Major Jacob Hoffman 1810–1825, included outbuildings, gardens, small sugar refinery. Next owner Elizabeth Thacker Hooe leased house to Benjamin . . . — — Map (db m8613) HM
The Smoot Lumber Company Planing Mill was located in the southwest portion of this block. It was constructed in 1912 with W.A. Smoot & Co., Inc. and was designed by H.A. Riggs, a local Alexandria architect. This mill replaced an earlier mill . . . — — Map (db m129201) HM
A small slaughterhouse stood on this spot in the 1870s and 1880s. Its discovery occurred when the City of Alexandria made plans to rebuild Jefferson-Houston School. A City ordinance requires archaeological research to take place prior to . . . — — Map (db m195662) HM
About 100 years before Ramsey Homes was built, prominent Alexandrian Henry Daingerfield purchased this parcel of land. In 1849, prominent Alexandrian Henry Daingerfield purchased a parcel of land upon which the Ramsey Homes would eventually be . . . — — Map (db m188811) HM
The Alexandria Gentleman's Driving Club laid out a track just north of here that was operating by 1894, colloquially known as "the St. Asaph Track." In 1897, however, Virginia banned horse race betting, so the track was never as profitable as . . . — — Map (db m115144) HM
The Alexandria Gentleman's Driving Club laid out a track just north of here that was operating by 1894, colloquially known as "the St. Asaph Track." In 1897, however, Virginia banned horse race betting, so the track was never as profitable as . . . — — Map (db m195769) HM
The Alexandria Almshouse was a publicly-funded poorhouse and workhouse where the needy could find refuge and the courts often sentenced people for vagrancy or indebtedness. Residents worked hard for their sustenance. The Almshouse was built about . . . — — Map (db m133930) HM
The location of Del Ray Central apartments is often referred to as The Triangle Site. Both the topography of this place and transportation corridors defined the site's shape. The eastern side drops sharply down to the flat plain on which Potomac . . . — — Map (db m115676) 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
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
Despite its function as a major rail classification yard for many years, Potomac Yard was not immune to the economic pressures and competition from other modes of transportation. Trucks and airplanes eventually reduced the need for goods and . . . — — Map (db m115650) HM
Phoenix Mill is the last surviving remnant of Alexandria's once thriving milling industry. William Hartshorne built the four-story mill in 1801. The mill was built at a time when Northern Virginia's economy shifted from tobacco to grain . . . — — Map (db m133936) 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
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
Isaac Franklin and John Armfield leased this brick building with access to the wharves and docks in 1828 as a holding pen for enslaved people being shipped from Northern Virginia to Louisiana. They purchased the building and three lots in 1832. From . . . — — Map (db m72628) HM
The area around duke street between Hooff's Run and the base of Shuter's Hill was once known as "West End." Originally subdivided and sold by John and Thomas West in the 1780s, West End became a thriving community well positioned for commerce along . . . — — Map (db m72367) 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
In the early part of the 20th century, the Chinquapin Park area was a wooded place with abundant water. People living along King Street walked to the spring near here to obtain water for use in their homes. Sugar was also grown and processed . . . — — Map (db m150813) HM
Welcome to Falling Spring Falls in the Heart of the Alleghany Highlands.
According to the book, “Historical Sketches of the Alleghany
Highlands” by Gay Arritt, 82 acres of land including, the
Falling Spring Falls was granted by . . . — — Map (db m114706) HM
Australia Furnace, located just east of here, produced pig iron for the Tredegar Iron Works—“Ironmaker to the Confederacy”—during the Civil War. Ira and Edwin Jordan had begun constructing Australia Furnace in 1852; two years later, they put it in . . . — — Map (db m107981) HM
You are standing near the site of the Lucy Selina Furnace, which supplied the Confederacy with pig iron for the production of cannons, munitions, and rails during the Civil War. In 1827, two Scots-Irishmen, Col. John Jordan and John Irvine, built . . . — — Map (db m107982) HM
This furnace was built in 1827 by ironmasters John Jordan and John Irvine and was named for their wives. During the Civil War, iron produced here was used in the manufacture of Confederate Munitions. — — Map (db m46386) HM
Here stand the earliest coke ovens of the Low Moor Iron Company (organized 1873). The ovens converted coal to coke to fuel the company’s blast furnace. The company built more than a hundred such ovens in 1881. By 1923 the Low Moor Iron Company . . . — — Map (db m84051) HM
The Amherst County Museum is currently located in a Georgian Revival home built in 1907. It was built by a local pharmacist, Mr. Kearfott, who had his business at the same location as the former Amherst Pharmacy on Main Street. Mr. Kearfott and . . . — — Map (db m179525) HM
The Amherst County Bateau
Anthony Rucker of Amherst County invented the James River bateau, which was patented in 1821. Thomas Jefferson described one of Rucker's boats as 50 feet long by 6 feet wide with a 13.5-inch draft. a bateau could . . . — — Map (db m179522) HM
An orchardist and champion of heritage apples, Tom traced his roots to seven generations of apple growers in Amherst and Nelson counties. He was born in Amherst County where he was a lifelong resident and partner in Burford Brothers. Tom shared his . . . — — Map (db m179521) HM
The Boxwood Alumnae House was built on Elijah Road in 1920 as an Inn for guests on campus. Converted into a small dormitory in the nineteen sixties in response to increased enrollment at the College, it was later renovated through the kind . . . — — Map (db m179533) HM
According to local tradition, residents of this region were making clay smoking pipes here by the mid-eighteenth century. By 1879 the Pamplin Pipe Factory was in operation. Machines there were used to mold clay into pipes, which were then allowed to . . . — — Map (db m30109) HM
This home incorporates the original log house built about 1800 by William Carlin. It is one of the earliest structures remaining in Arlington. At one time, Carlin had been a tailor in Alexandria whose clients included George Washington. Mr. Carlin’s . . . — — Map (db m56352) HM
Four Mile Run winds through local history–and has been dramatically altered by human impacts.
1. For the region's first inhabitants, the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries provided transportation and an annual harvest of migratory . . . — — Map (db m151025) HM
Rear Admiral, USN; Civil Engineer, Explorer, Scientist
(1856-1920)
Invenium Viam Avt Facium
Erected by the National Geographic Society.
Dedicated April 6, 1922, by the President of the United States, the Chief Justice of the . . . — — Map (db m14709) HM
The Buckingham garden apartment complex was built in stages between 1937 and 1983. It represents a pioneering effort to provide rental housing through the use of "garden city" planning principles, mass production techniques and private capital. The . . . — — Map (db m56481) HM
The land along Four Mile Run in this area belonged to George Washington and was known as Washington Forest. Later it became part of the Arlington estate. The Columbia Turnpike was built through here in 1808 to link the Long Bridge at Washington with . . . — — Map (db m56468) HM
Ballston Metro
The expansion of the Federal government and the increase of the population in the mid-20th century led to dramatic changes to the region. After the closure of the trolley lines in Arlington County, buses were the primary means of . . . — — Map (db m145152) HM
Bob Peck opened his first Chevrolet dealership in 1939 on Wilson Boulevard in Clarendon. In 1964, he moved the dealership west to Ballston to the very prominent corner of North Glebe Road and Wilson Boulevard, 300 feet south of this marker. Taking . . . — — Map (db m64844) HM
This site is where the distinctive "Blue Goose" building stood. While the origin of the moniker remains unknown, Arlingtonians recognized the building's atypical form and striking polychromatic blue metal panels. Well-known local architect John M. . . . — — Map (db m145144) HM
Trolleys Come to Ballston
The Washington, Arlington & Falls Church Railway (WA&FC) established an interurban electric trolley along the present route of Fairfax Drive in 1896. The WA&FC's Fairfax trolley line ran through this site to Clarendon . . . — — Map (db m145148) HM
(Trail Side): Bluemont Junction began operation in 1912 as a part of the newly formed Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Railway. The station was a busy transfer point for passengers and freight from Alexandria and Georgetown to points west, . . . — — Map (db m24988) HM
The Bluemont Branch of the Washington & Old Dominion was not the railroad's only line. The Great Falls & Old Dominion Railroad arose in 1906 from the vision of two prominent men.
Sen. Stephen B. Elkins of West Virginia had prospered through . . . — — Map (db m214185) HM
This park is named for Henry Wright, born in 1878 in Lawrence, Kansas, and raised in a Quaker family. Wright's exposure to functional Quaker architecture and his father's position as a local city planner impacted his designs. He studied . . . — — Map (db m69554) HM
Pimmit Run is a stream that runs from the Pimmit Hills neighborhood in Falls Church and joins the Potomac River immediately south of Chain Bridge. The mouth of Pimmit Run provided Native Americans and settlers access to fresh water and fishing, the . . . — — Map (db m59708) HM
Thomas Lee patented land in this area in 1719. Here at the head of navigation of the Potomac River, he established an official tobacco inspection warehouse in 1742, the beginning of Arlington's first industrial complex. After 1794, Philip Richard . . . — — Map (db m3337) HM
At 2:30 pm on June 9, 1960, the first day of lunch-counter protests in Northern Virginia, six individuals from Howard and Duke Universities helped challenge discrimination at commercial eating establishments in the state by beginning a . . . — — Map (db m195249) HM
Arlington During the Conflict
Fifteen years after the U.S. ended its official military involvement in Korea, Arlington continued its association with the nation's military and intelligence operations. In place of the U.S. Army Signal . . . — — Map (db m236008) HM
A century ago, much of this site was a tidal marsh. Since then, people have carved out and filled in the landscape nearby to accommodate bridges, brickyards, highways, railroads, motels, airports, the Pentagon—and now Long Bridge Park.
The . . . — — Map (db m134980) HM
Did you know? Benjamin Banneker was a…
★ Son of freed slaves from Baltimore, Maryland
★ Member of the first appointed team to survey the nation's capital, Washington, D.C.
★ Pioneered innovative agricultural . . . — — Map (db m198327) HM
In the 1700s, Falls Church began along two Indian trails and included large farms anchored by an Anglican church. Several taverns and inns served as resting spots for travelers on their way to or from Leesburg, Virginia. By the 1840s, Falls Church . . . — — Map (db m55960) HM
Enslaved here
Nancy
Female
Born ca. 1775
Died ca. 1831 - 1840
Enslaved here
Name unknown
Male
Born ca. 1806 - 1820
Enslaved here
Name unknown
Male
Born 1844 — — Map (db m238963) HM
Wheelhouse explores the industrial history of the Jennie Dean Park site through the lens of the great American pastime—baseball. Inspired by the mill that stood in this location in the early 1700's and the park's rich recreational . . . — — Map (db m214512) HM
The entrepreneurial spirit of Green Valley was born of necessity. Businesses emerged in the shadow of segregation as owners supplied services that otherwise were denied to their community.
[Captions:]
James Chinn established . . . — — Map (db m214454) HM
As a business and civil rights leader, Leonard "Doc" Muse established Arlington County's first African-American owned and operated pharmacy at 2415 Shirlington Road in 1952. He overcame the challenges of racism, segregation, and inequality to bring . . . — — Map (db m130989) HM
This small piece of land has a long history of light industrial use: brickyards, construction, a service station, and a scrapyard. When Arlington acquired the property, the County entered the site into the Voluntary Remediation Program, allowing . . . — — Map (db m134976) HM
This stretch of riverside has hosted many diverse communities over time. Nameroughquena tribal homes, the large estates of the Lees and other prominent families, raucous Jackson City, and historic African-American neighborhoods have all existed in . . . — — Map (db m134978) HM
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