During the Civil War, an influx of self-emancipated slaves (often referred to as "contrabands") arrived in Alexandria. For several decades thereafter, this population, along with other free Black migrants, changed the racial character of both the . . . — — Map (db m204837) HM
These stones are remnants of Lock #4 of the Alexandria Canal which once occupied this site. Completed in 1843, the canal linked the Alexandria waterfront with the C & O Canal in Georgetown. — — Map (db m131390) 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Over the course of the Civil War (1861-1865), the Union Army Surgeon General of Alexandria opened over 30 military hospitals with 6,500 beds within the city limits. Grosvenor Hospital was added as a branch of Mansion House on August 17, 1862, and . . . — — Map (db m185293) HM
In the 1790's many Alexandria streets were paved with cobblestones. According to legend, Hessian soldiers provided the labor to cobble Princess Street. These cobbles remained essentially untouched until 1979, when the street was restored using the . . . — — Map (db m71813) HM
Eminent lawyer, he lived here until 1837. His son, Cassius Francis Lee until 1865. Edmund Jennings Lee served as Vestryman and Warden of Christ Church, whose Glebe lands he successfully defended from confiscation after the Revolutionary War. Major . . . — — Map (db m8566) HM
Funded by the U.S. Public Housing Administration and built by the Alexandria Housing and Redevelopment Authority (ARHA) between 1954 and 1959, the James Bland Homes was Alexandria's fourth public housing project, and it more than doubled the . . . — — Map (db m72374) HM
Built by Philip Richard Fendall in 1785 on land purchased from Henry (Light Horse Harry) Lee. Lee was a brilliant cavalry officer in the Revolution, close friend of George Washington, Virginia Assemblyman, member of Congress and Governor of . . . — — Map (db m128768) HM
“Light Horse Harry” Lee, Revolutionary War officer, owned this land in 1784. The house was built in 1785 by Phillip Fendall, a Lee relative. Renovated in 1850 in the Greek Revival style, the house remained in the Lee family until 1903. . . . — — Map (db m8567) 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 first story was built in 1812 as the first female free school in Virginia endowed by Mrs. Martha Washington and Mr. W. B. Dandredge.
Potomac Lodge No. 38 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows purchased the property on November 15, 1841 and . . . — — Map (db m67083) HM
The 1990 enlargement of this church is dedicated to God's glory and to the memory of the Afro-American Christians, many of them emancipated slaves, who became the congregation of Meade Church by Action of the vestry of Christ Church in 1873, two . . . — — Map (db m129187) HM
Parker-Gray School opened on Wythe Street in 1920 to serve African American students in grades 1-8. Until upper-level classes were added in 1932, African Americans had to travel to the District of Columbia to attend high school. Civil rights . . . — — Map (db m98083) HM
In 1941, the United States Housing Authority (USHA), under the Federal Works Agency, began to plan for the construction of permanent housing for Black defense workers in the Uptown neighborhood. Then known as the Lanham Act Alexandria Defense . . . — — Map (db m182231) HM
Panel 1:
In the summer of 1939, Attorney Samuel W. Tucker organized six youths — William Evans, Otto Tucker, Edward Caddis, Morris Murray, Clarence Strange, and Robert Strange — for a “sit-in” at the segregated . . . — — Map (db m141636) HM
Under the guidance of the Most Reverend Denis J. O'Connell, Bishop of Richmond, Saint Joseph's Church was built by Father Joseph J. Kelly, of the Society of Saint Joseph (the Josephites) with the assistance of many benefactors, among them being the . . . — — Map (db m129200) HM
On this site stood Beth El Hebrew Congregation’s synagogue, the first structure built as Jewish house of worship in the Washington metropolitan area. Founded in 1859, Beth El, the first reform Jewish congregation in the Washington area, is northern . . . — — Map (db m8604) 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
Enforced racial segregation in Alexandria meant separate, poorly funded schools for the City's African American students. Here, in the African American neighborhood then known as Uptown, a new school was built in 1920 at 901 Wythe Street for . . . — — Map (db m182228) HM
The racially integrated working-class neighborhood known as the Hump, named for the high ground at its northern boundary, once spanned three blocks, centering on the 800 block of Montgomery Street. The Hump was first settled in the decade . . . — — Map (db m72500) HM
African Americans in Alexandria suffered, along with other of their race, when a segregated system prevented them from enjoying recreation facilities in their hometown.
From 1926 to 1951, the city had a municipal pool for white residents . . . — — Map (db m80843) HM
Parker-Gray High School served Alexandria's African American students—first on Wythe Street and later on Madison Street—during the City's years of enforced school segregation. With little support from the City, the school's faculty and coaches . . . — — Map (db m195656) HM
Alexandria, occupied by Union troops in 1861, attracted many African Americans escaping slavery. In Jan. 1864, a group of formerly enslaved people organized Third Freedmen's Baptist Church (later Third Baptist Church). The congregation moved to this . . . — — Map (db m140583) HM
This city block became part of the Alexandria town grid in 1798. Near the rural outskirts of the developing town, the block remained vacant throughout the nineteenth century. Colross, a country estate, was established in the vicinity, and outside . . . — — Map (db m70671) HM
Most of the American and French armies set sail from three ports in Maryland—Annapolis, Baltimore, and Head of Elk—in mid-Sept. 1781 to besiege the British army in Yorktown. The allied supply-wagon traln proceeded overland to Yorktown, . . . — — Map (db m8570) 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
We are not contrabands, but soldiers of the U.S. Army. We have cheerfully left the comforts of home, and entered into the field of conflict, fighting side by side with the white soldiers…
As American citizens, we have a right . . . — — Map (db m87058) 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
Federal authorities established a cemetery here for newly freed African Americans during the Civil War. In January 1864, the military governor of Alexandria confiscated for use as a burying ground an abandoned pasture from a family with Confederate . . . — — Map (db m122082) HM
Many of the African Americans who fled to Alexandria to escape enslavement and those already living here succumbed to disease and deprivation during and shortly after the Civil War. Carts bearing the dead entered the cemetery along a path in this . . . — — Map (db m188795) HM
During the Civil War, Freedmen's Cemetery extended into the middle of South Washington Street. Each tan stone in the sidewalk marks a grave identified by archaeologists investigating the location of the original cemetery. — — Map (db m188794) HM
The bridge is one of the last remnants of Alexandria's first railroad, the Orange & Alexandria. The “O&ARR,” as it was commonly called, opened in 1851 and had 148 miles of track in 1860. The bridge was constructed by the railroad as . . . — — Map (db m99330) HM
In honor of those who gave the Ultimate Sacrifice in service to the United States of America and the families they left behind. The sacrifice will not be forgotten. — — Map (db m140585) WM
A consummate public servant, role model, and leader whose tireless work for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, including planning for the new multimodal Woodrow Wilson Bridge and the promotion of walkable, bikeable communities, is . . . — — Map (db m188808) HM
Named for Toussaint L’Ouverture, the Haitian
revolutionary. L’Ouverture Hospttal opened early
in 1864 near the Freedmen’s barracks in Alexandria
to serve sick and injured United States Colored
Troops (USCT). Designed by the U.S. Army, . . . — — Map (db m108153) HM
During the Civil War, 217 was the headquarters of the L'Overture Hospital. It was named after Tousaint L'Overture — Hispaniola's (Haiti) slave revolt leader. Patients were African American Union Soldiers & “contrabands” (escaped . . . — — Map (db m74279) HM WM
In this cemetery rest the earthly remains of Patriots in the Revolutionary War, many of whom were of Scottish ancestry.
These Patriots, along with many Presbyterians from Alexandria, fought for the cause of Liberty and assisted the Soldiers . . . — — Map (db m129163) HM
Original Federal Boundary Stone
District of Columbia
Placed 1791 - 1792
Protected by Mt. Vernon Chapter
Daughters of the American Revolution
1916 — — Map (db m154752) HM
The Alexandria's Board of Trustees established Penny Hill Cemetery in 1796 as the town's municipal burial ground. The cemetery became the final resting place for indigent and unidentified people in the City, as well as residents. Because nearly all . . . — — Map (db m188793) HM
At the end of the 18th century, African Americans constituted half of the congregation at Alexandria's Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church. With support from Trinity, black members founded a separate congregation early in the 1830s, and their . . . — — Map (db m127781) HM
Alexandria, occupied by Union troops during the Civil War, became a refuge for African Americans escaping slavery. Before the war ended, about 50 former slaves founded the Shiloh Society, later known as Shiloh Baptist Church. Members held services . . . — — Map (db m91684) 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
Dedicated by the City of Alexandria and Alexandria's Veterans' organizations on Veterans' Day November 11, 1979, in honored memory of the deceased Alexandria Veterans of all the United States wars.
Their service in war and peace contributed . . . — — Map (db m150724) WM
Alexandria Academy
(Washington School)
Built 1785-86
George Washington member
Board of Managers
Washington Lancastrian School
(Site of)
Built 1812
Razed 1870
Alexandria Community Y
Erected . . . — — Map (db m129166) HM
During the Civil War, Alexandria's population swelled with more than 20,000 enslaved African Americans fleeing Confederate territory for safety behind Union lines. Initially called Contrabands because they were considered "property" taken during . . . — — Map (db m127734) HM
Artist David Hess created this transept of found and cast materials. His design is in recognition of William Clayborne, the colonial surveyor and is based upon the artist's personal research into tools of the surveying trade from that period. — — Map (db m127733) HM
Here stood Fort Ellsworth, named for Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth who was killed during the Union Army's occupation of Alexandria on May 24, 1861. Built in 1861, the fort had a perimeter of 618 yards and emplacement for 29 guns. — — Map (db m133932) HM
has been designated a National Historic Landmark
This site possesses national significance in commemorating the history of the United States of America.
Built from 1922-1932 to symbolize George Washington's character and virtue, this . . . — — Map (db m204971) HM
President Gerald R. Ford, Jr.
Residence
has been designated a
National Historic Landmark
This residence possesses significance in
commemorating the history of the
United States of America
From 1955-1974, this was the home . . . — — Map (db m133934) HM
The Bloxham Cemetery is the last visible sign of 3,000 years of human occupation in this area near Cameron Run. Flintknappers, farmers, and fruit growers all left their imprints beneath the surface of the ground here. Small groups of American . . . — — Map (db m216713) HM
James and Mary Bloxham, whose descendants are interred within this cemetery, came to Alexandria from England in the late 18th century. By the mid-19th century, two of their sons — William, a miller by trade, and James (II), a farmer — had settled . . . — — Map (db m216714) HM
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