What happened on this day in Alexandria's History?
What happened in Alexandria on today's date, or tomorrow, or on your birthday? Search below to find out.
Note: If an event has not been posted for the selected day, you will see historical events for the next calendar day with an entry.
As we honor Alexandria's 275th Anniversary, take a journey with us to the past as we revisit pivotal moments in our city's history through a series of short videos
Videos: This Week in Alexandria's History
| Day | Year | Street Address | Property Name | Topics | Historic Event | Image | Image Caption | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01/04 | 1923 | Cameron and West Streets | Alexandria High School | Athletic Field, Jefferson-Houston School | On January 4, 1923, the Alexandria City Council authorized a new athletic field at Alexandria High School. The school had opened in 1916 along Cameron Street, just west of North West Street, where the Jefferson-Houston School is today. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/01041923AlexandriaHighSchool.jpg | The old Alexandria High School. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 01/05 | 1874 | 405 Cameron Street | George's Tavern | Old English House, Gadsby's Tavern, restaurant, Civil War | On January 5, 1874, the old George’s Tavern, also known as the Old English House on the northwest corner of Cameron and North Royal Streets, caught fire and was severely damaged, burned beyond repair. Seen in the background of this Civil War era photo of Union soldiers taken in front of Gadsby’s Tavern, the dormered building is further marked by a large horizontal sign extending over the public sidewalk reading “Restaurant." | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/01051874Gadsbys.jpg | Civil War era photo of Gadsby's Tavern, with the old George's Tavern in the background. | |
| 01/06 | 1873 | 1001 South Royal Street | hospital, smallpox | On January 6, 1873 a temporary hospital was erected on South Washington Street, near St. Mary’s Cemetery, to accommodate the huge increase in victims that had succumbed to a massive Smallpox epidemic underway in Alexandria. The attempt to isolate indigent and “outside poor” patients away from the densely populated downtown area, at a spot where Washington Street dead-ended at Great Hunting Creek, proved fruitless for those who had contracting the disease, and many died soon after they were admitted to the facility. The City provided a coffin and burial for the dead, with the price of a plain coffin reduced from five to two dollars as a result of the large quantities needed. However, at the same time transport and burial costs increased dramatically from one to ten dollars, due to the increased risk of disease posed to undertakers and gravediggers. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/01061873AlexGaz02051873Smallpox.JPG | Article about expenses at the smallpox hospital, Alexandria Gazette, 02/05/1873. | ||
| 01/07 | 2000 | 5005 Duke Street | Beatley Library | Alexandria Archaeological Commission, Time Capsule, 250th Anniversary, Alexandria Canal Tide Lock, Raymond Cannetti | On January 7, 2000, a time capsule was buried at the soon to be opened Beatley Library. Organized by the Alexandria Archaeological Commission, the time capsule project was part of Alexandria’s 250th Anniversary celebration in 1999. A stone excavated from the Alexandria Canal Tide Lock site and carved by master mason Raymond Cannetti marks the burial site. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/01072000TimeCapsuleMarker.jpg | Stone marking the 250th anniversary Time Capsule at the Beatley library. Courtesy, Alexandria Archaeology Museum. | |
| 01/09 | 1951 | 200 block South Royal Street | Alexandria Armory | Alexandria National Guard | On January 9, 1951, Alexandria officials announced the Alexandria National Guard armory on South Royal Street had been converted into a recreation center for both servicemen and Alexandria residents. Renovations to the building included game rooms, a photographic darkroom and an indoor gym. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/01091951AlexandriaArmory.jpg | Alexandria Armory building, 200 block S. Royal Street. Courtesy, Alexandria Library, Special Collections. | |
| 01/10 | 1950 | Water closet, indoor toilet, outhouses, sewer | On January 10, 1950, the Alexandria City Council passed an ordinance requiring a water closet at all residences within the city. By using the term “water closet” the City did not actually mandate that each home include a full working bathroom within its interior. Rather, a single toilet installed within the confines of even a tiny room met the terms of the building code to finally eliminate exterior outhouses within the city. A year later, when Alexandria annexed a huge area of rural land from Fairfax County, west of Quaker Lane, this code was fully enforced by the Health Department, resulting in the extension of sewer lines and rapid transformation of the area from farms to high-density development. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/01101950Toilets.jpg | ||||
| 01/11 | 1798 | 717 Queen Street | Barrett Branch Library | Alexandria Library Company, Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary, The Lyceum, Lloyd House | On January 11, 1798, the Alexandria Library Company was first incorporated as a private subscription library. Over the years the library moved among locations such as the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary and The Lyceum and in the mid-1930s was assumed within the public budget of the City of Alexandria under the control of a Board comprised of the Alexandria Library Company and others appointed by City Council. The first public library building, now the Barrett Branch Library was built in 1937 and named in honor of Kate Waller Barrett, a humanitarian, social crusader and political reformer. It is the second largest collection in the Alexandria Library with more than 100,000 items. The Branch, located in the Old Town section of Alexandria, was renovated and expanded in 1995 and reconfigured in April 2000 to house the historical and genealogical research collections formerly located at Lloyd House. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/01011798Library.jpg | The Barrett Branch Library. | |
| 01/12 | 1864 | King Street | Telegraph Company | On January 12, 1864 the Clerk of the Alexandria Common Council was directed to notify the Telegraph Company whose wires and poles already traversed King Street, that the telegraph lines must be placed in a direct line with the street curb within thirty days. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/01121864TelegraphPolesSnow.jpg | Telegraph Poles. | ||
| 01/13 | 1874 | 121 North Fairfax Street | Carlyle House | Fire | On January 13, 1874, a fire broke at the Carlyle House. The fire was concentrated on the roof near a chimney but firefighters extinguished it before any serious damage occurred. After construction of a large hotel in front of the 18th century home built for Alexandria founder John Carlyle on North Fairfax Street, the once elegant structure was neglected and often used as a transient boarding house, resulting in unsafe conditions. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/01131874CarlyleHouseFront.jpg | Carlyle House. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 01/14 | 1941 | 3210 King Street | Chinquapin Village | World War II | On January 14, 1941, the federal government purchased 41 acres of land at Chinquapin Hollow along King Street for $15,000, to develop the Chinquapin Village War Housing Project, created for the families of defense workers at the newly reactivated Torpedo Factory on Alexandria’s waterfront. Named for the Chinquapin tree, whose small husked acorns were used for centuries as a staple of the Native American diet, the community consisted of 300 family units sheltering nearly 1,500 people. Due to its somewhat rural isolation, the complex included internal public amenities including a community hall for social activities and church services, a softball field and children’s playground. At the height of torpedo production, three shifts of workers were continually shuttled from their temporary homes to the factory three miles away by buses, 24 four hours a day, and seven days a week. Though the duplex dwellings were small and drafty, residents who came to Alexandria from many different states loved the sense of community and friendship that developed at the site. Dismantled in the 1960’s, remnants of Chinquapin Village still remain behind the Chinquapin Recreation Center. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/01141941ChinquapinVillage.jpg | Aerial photo of Chinquapin Village. | |
| 01/14 | 1962 | 4320 Seminary Road | Alexandria Hospital | Lyndon B. Johnson, hospital, ribbon cutting | On January 14, 1962, the new Alexandria Hospital on Seminary Road was officially dedicated. Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson cut the ribbon before a crowd of more than 5,000. The new facility cost around $3.7 million to build. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/01141962LBJHospital.jpg | Lyndon B. Johnson at the dedication for the new Alexandria Hospital, 1962. | |
| 01/15 | 1775 | George Washington, militia | In a prelude of the gathering of war clouds between the American colonies and the British government, on January 15, 1775, George Washington reviewed troops of the local militia in Alexandria and selected a committee for the County of Fairfax to prepare for the possibility of conflict. Two days later he recommended a new tax on county residents to support the militia and to purchase military supplies and equipment. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/12161766Washington1772.jpg | Portrait of George Washington, Charles Wilson Peale, 1772. Original portrait at Washington and Lee University. | |||
| 01/16 | 1947 | 1605 Cameron Street | Dr. Oswald Durant Arts Center | USO | On January 16, 1947, the United Service Organization center on Cameron Street closed. Built during World War II, the USO center provided recreational and social activities for service members. The City of Alexandria later acquired the building for use by the Department of Recreation and today it’s known as the Dr. Oswald Durant Memorial Center. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/01161947USOBuilding.jpg | The USO building, formerly on the 1600 block of Cameron Street. | |
| 01/18 | 1852 | Duke Street at Diagonal Road | Catt's Tavern | Drover's Tavern, West End, Hiring Day, African American | On January 18, 1852, the annual ”Hiring Day” for free African American men took place at what was then just outside the Alexandria city limits , enabling freedmen to obtain both permanent and long-term temporary employment in the Northern Virginia region.. The tradition of setting aside one day in January for this practice had been established decades before and connected farmers and cattle drovers from settlements to the west of Alexandria with a larger pool of employable men ready and waiting for job opportunities during the coming year. The event was always held at Catt’s Tavern, also known as the Drover’s Tavern, located at Duke Street and Diagonal Road in what became known as the original “West End” of Alexandria, well known for its breweries, slaughterhouses and less than reputable businesses. The rough-and-tumble hostelry catered to the lodging needs of those transporting agricultural products and cattle from far outside the Port City, and capitalized on their constant need for additional labor back on their farms. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/01181852CattsTavern.jpg | Catt's Tavern, also known as the Drover's Tavern, on Duke Street at Diagonal Road. | |
| 01/19 | 1807 | 607 Oronoco Street | Robert E. Lee Boyhood Home | Robert E. Lee, Stratford Hall, Light Horse Harry Lee, Hallowell School, Alexandria Academy | On January 19, 1807, Robert Edward Lee, a descendant of one of Virginia’s oldest families, was born at the Lee family seat, Stratford Hall in Westmoreland County. He was the son of Revolutionary War hero, Major General Henry Lee III, known as “Light Horse Harry” lee, and his second wife, Anne Hill Carter. Two years after he was born, his father was placed in debtor’s prison, and when he was released in 1810, the family moved to Alexandria, and the following year took up residence at a home on Oronoco Street, owned by William Henry Fitzhugh, a relative of Anne Lee, and adjacent to the famous “Lee Corner” at Washington Street where other Lee family members maintained homes. In 1812 Henry Lee traveled to the West Indies where he died in 1818, leaving his wife and six children to be cared for by relatives. As a child, Robert attended school locally, at both the school operated by Benjamin Hallowell and at the Alexandria Academy, a free school for local boys. In 1825 he enrolled at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York where graduated second in his class. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/01191807RobertELee1838.jpg | Portrait of Robert E. Lee, William Edward West, 1838. Washington-Custis-Lee Collection, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia. | |
| 01/20 | 1874 | Potomac River frozen | On January 20, 1874, an ice blockade on the Potomac broke after the river had been largely impassable for four days. Most ferries were able to resume their trips between Alexandria and Washington, though not all wharves were accessible. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/01201874PotomacFrozen.jpg | The Potomac River frozen over. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |||
| 01/20 | 1942 | Ambulance, Potomac Truck and Engine Company | On January 20, 1942, the Alexandria City Council authorized the purchase of an ambulance for first time. Alexandria’s first ambulance was acquired in the 1930s, but it had been paid for with donations, after members of the Potomac Truck and Engine Company, which had organized the first rescue squad in Alexandria, raised money to purchase one. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/01201942RescueSquad.jpg | The rescue squad at the Potomac Fire Department, ca. 1942. | |||
| 01/21 | 1852 | Potomac River frozen | On January 21, 1852, the Potomac River was entirely frozen over between Virginia and Maryland. People came to Alexandria from Fort Washington and points further south by traveling across the frozen river, as though it were a road. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/01211852FrozenPotomacLOC1918.jpg | Potomac River ice jams, 1918. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |||
| 01/21 | 1953 | 200 block South Royal Street | Alexandria Armory | Fire, Benjamin F. Price, Glenn Brown, Richardsonian Style | On January 21, 1953, a large fire destroyed the City Armory located in the 200 block of South Royal Street. The armory housed military equipment but also served as a community recreation center during peacetime. Designed in 1880 by Benjamin F. Price, and expanded seven years later by architect Glenn Brown, the large armory held space for 700 people, with a slate roof, brick turrets and monumental arches in the “Richardsonian” style. Thankfully, a steel and concrete vault prevented the explosion of hundreds of rounds of ammunition stored in the building during the fire. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/01091951AlexandriaArmory.jpg | Alexandria Armory building, 200 block S. Royal Street. Courtesy, Alexandria Library, Special Collections. | |
| 01/23 | 1866 | Fire Department | On January 23, 1866 an act was passed by City Council to establish a paid City Fire Department for Alexandria. For over a century, fire was a constant threat to Alexandria and even one forgotten candle could develop into a major conflagration involving dozens of homes and businesses. For decades the city had been served by a number of small, volunteer companies including the Friendship, Hydraulion, Relief, Sun and others, but the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 severely disrupted the volunteer companies as local men signed up for enlistment or fled the area. Responsibility for subduing fire in the city was left to the Union military government which by 1863 had largely destroyed existing firefighting equipment through misuse and neglect. When the war ended, city fathers realized that it would be almost impossible to recreate a reliable volunteer system, and firefighting was accepted as a municipal responsibility. Over the coming months the Alexandria Fire Department and Office of Historic Alexandria will celebrate the 100 anniversary of the AFD with a wide variety of events and activities. Of course, these commemorative programs will be highlighted in this e-newsletter each week as they occur. |
/uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/06301865FriendshipFirehouse.jpg | Friendship Firehouse Museum. Office of Historic Alexandria. | |||
| 01/24 | 1876 | Mayor Kosciusko Kemper, police, marbles, kites | On January 24, 1876, in response to growing complaints from residents and shopkeepers alike, Mayor Kosciusko Kemper ordered police to crack down on youthful offenders creating mayhem on the streets of Alexandria. Specifically, police were ordered to arrest anyone flying kites or playing the popular game of marbles on public streets or sidewalks, a directive that applied primarily to school age children seeking amusement in the city. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/01241876MarblesSketch.jpg | “Marbles” by James McNeill Whistler (between 1886 and 1887). Library of Congress. | |||
| 01/25 | 1949 | Postage stamp, Bicentennial, Carlyle House, Gadsby's Tavern | On January 25, 1949, the United States Senate authorized production of a 6-cent postage stamp commemorating Alexandria’s bi-centennial celebration being held that year. The special air mail stamp featured the City seal and two of the City’s most significant historical sites, Carlyle House and the original section of Gadsby’s Tavern. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/01251949Stamp.jpg | 1949 postage stamp commemorating Alexandria's bicentennial. Office of Historic Alexandria. | |||
| 01/26 | 1937 | 717 Queen Street | Barrett Library | Robert South Barrett, Kate Waller Barrett, Alexandria Library, Society of Friends, Quaker burial ground, cemetery, Alexandria Library Company | On January 26, 1937, the Alexandria City Council approved a proposal by Dr. Robert South Barrett who offered to provide funds to the City to erect a public library in memory of his mother, Dr. Kate Waller Barrett. Previously, the Alexandria Library was a private subscription library with subscribers paying an annual membership fee. The site chosen for the new facility at 717 Queen Street had been used as a Quaker burial ground, but The Society of Friends granted a 99-year lease for use of its property as a site for the new building. The Alexandria Library Company then signed an agreement with City Council, turning over its collections to the City, and Council agreed to include operating expenses for the public library in its future operating budgets. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/01261937KateWallerBarrett.JPG | Kate Waller Barrett. Courtesy, Alexandria Library. | |
| 01/29 | 1947 | South Washington Street at Prince Street, NE corner | George Mason Hotel | Historic District, Old Town, public signs, neon | On January 29, 1947, just a year after establishing America’s third regulated historic district, in what would become known as “Old Town”, the Alexandria City Council directed that a new ordinance be prepared covering public signs in the City. In the years after World War II signs across the city began to become larger and larger to attract the attention of the increasingly motorized population driving through the city. Some signs, such as the one pictured here atop the 1922 George Mason Hotel, was one of three neon signs installed on engineered structural frames on the roof of the building, pointed towards City Hall and in both directions on Washington Street. With this new trend starting to accelerate, officials determined it was now time to regulate signage. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/01291947GeorgeMasonHotel1922.JPG | The George Mason Hotel, 1922. | |
| 01/30 | 1849 | Montgomery D. Corse, California gold rush, Mexican War, 17th VA Regiment, Civil War | On January 30, 1849, resident Montgomery D. Corse, a prominent Alexandrian and military officer who had served in the Mexican War, left the city with a group of like-minded Alexandrians to seek their fortune in the California gold rush. Their journey westward took place one year and six days after gold was first discovered by John Marshall at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California. Kept a secret at first, rumors of gold found in the American River were finally confirmed by President James Polk through an address to Congress on December 5, 1848. Upon hearing the news, Corse and his associates immediately made travel and prospecting plans, arriving on April 1 and ultimately being joined by over 300,000 “forty-niners” who fled en masse to the former Mexican territory. After his return to Alexandria, years later Captain Corse went on to lead the 17th VA Regiment, C.S.A., during the American Civil War. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/01301849MDCorse.jpg | Montgomery D. Corse. | |||
| 02/01 | 1946 | 221 King Street | Ramsay House | Alexandria Historical Society | On February 1, 1946, a member of the Ramsay House Restoration Committee announced the formation of the Alexandria Historical Society. The new organization would seek incorporation and raise money to save Ramsay House, the historic structure at King and Fairfax streets, which was threatened with demolition. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02011946RamsayHouse.jpg | Ramsay House. Photo, Theodor Horydczak, ca. 1920-1950. Library of Congress. | |
| 02/02 | 1848 | Mexican-American War, Nicholas Philip Trist | On February 2, 1848, Nicholas Philip Trist of Alexandria negotiated the controversial “Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo” in Mexico, ending the Mexican-American War. Despite a questionable past, the influential lawyer was appointed as the official representative of President James Polk in the negotiations with Mexico, with specific instructions to seek acquisition of the Baja California peninsula for the United States under the terms of the settlement. A pro-slavery advocate, Trist was no stranger to controversy for his previous corruption activities associated with the production of false documents to facilitate illegal slave trading. After arriving in Mexico, his conduct did not meet Polk’s expectations and he was soon recalled to Washington. But Trist disregarded Polk’s instructions to return and continued to negotiate, signing an agreement that drew a westward line from Yuma, Arizona to an area between San Diego and Tijuana, without the coveted peninsula. Polk was furious with his representative, but the long distance between Mexico and Washington prevented new negotiations within an acceptable timeframe and he was forced to accept the result. But Trist was immediately fired for insubordination upon his return to America, and his personal expenses remained unpaid for decades. In later life he became Postmaster of Alexandria, and he died in the city in 1874. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02021848TristLOC.jpg | Nicholas Philip Trist. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |||
| 02/02 | 1904 | Magnus L. Robinson, Negro Press Association of Virginia, African American, the Leader newspaper | On February 2, 1904, Magnus L. Robinson was elected to chair the executive committee of the State Negro Press Association. Born in 1852, Robinson was a lifelong Alexandrian and his parents provided him with a private school education. For a time he went to Howard University, but withdrew due to a serious illness. He then turned his attention to teaching, and then journalism, becoming one of Alexandria’s most well-respected and beloved African American leaders in the early 20th century. Robinson was founder and editor of the Leader, a weekly African-American newspaper, which was first published in Washington, D.C., and then in Alexandria. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02021904MagnuslRobinson.jpg | Magnus L Robinson. | |||
| 02/03 | 1846 | Retrocession | On February 3, 1846, after Alexandrians petitioned Congress and the Virginia legislature, the Virginia General Assembly agreed to accept the retrocession of Alexandria from the District of Columbia to the Commonwealth, if Congress also approved. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02031846RetrocessionAccepted.jpg | The Act of Retrocession, published in the Alexandria Gazette. | |||
| 02/04 | 1861 | Unionist, George Brent, slavery, secessionist convention | On February 4, 1861, Unionist George Brent was elected to represent Alexandria at the upcoming secessionist convention to be convened in Richmond shortly thereafter. Brent, who supported slavery, correctly predicted that if Southern states seceded from the United States, they would most likely lose a potential war with the North, possibly resulting in the elimination of slavery in all states. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04041861GeorgeBrent.jpg | George Brent. | |||
| 02/05 | 1797 | Alexandria Gazette, newspaper | On February 5, 1797, the Alexandria Gazette, established in 1784, began daily publication; the newspaper is considered the oldest daily newspaper in the United States. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02051797GazetteLogo.jpg | Logo of the Alexandria Gazette. | |||
| 02/07 | 1812 | Earthquake | At about 4 a.m. on February 7, 1812, an aftershock from an earthquake centered at New Madrid, Missouri, rattled windows in Alexandria. This aftershock, estimated to be of a 7.7 magnitude, followed one on January 23, 1812 and the initial quake that hit on December 16, 1811. A day after the aftershock, Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser publication included the following Alexandria entry: There was another shock of an Earthquake felt at this place, at about 4 o’clock yesterday morning - its motion was about north-to-south - a gentle undulation, about the same in degree with that felt the 23d ult. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02071812NewMadridEarthquake.jpg | The New Madrid earthquake, lithograph. Courtesy, National Park Service. | |||
| 02/07 | 1944 | World War II, blackout, Bernard J. Padgett | On February 7, 1944, Alexandria officials reported that 15 violations of the previous night’s “blackout” had been documented. Chief Air Raid Ward Bernard J. Padgett said that the blackout, designed to protect populated areas from being seen from above during war time, was Alexandria’ 28th. Information on violators would be turned over to police for further investigation. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02071944BlackoutPoster.jpg | WPA Blackout poster. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |||
| 02/09 | 1862 | 228 South Pitt Street | Saint Paul's Church | K.J. Stewart, Civil War, Union hospital | On February 9, 1862, Rev. K.J. Stewart of St. Paul’s Church was arrested by Union troops for omitting a prayer for President Abraham Lincoln during services. Within a couple months, St. Paul’s was converted into use as a Union hospital. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02091862StPauls.jpg | St. Paul's Church. Courtesy, Alexandria Library Special Collections. | |
| 02/10 | 1957 | 3830 Seminary Road | Beth El Hebrew Congregation | Mayor Leroy S. Bendheim, synagogue | On February 10, 1957, congregation leaders, including Mayor Leroy S. Bendheim, laid the cornerstone at Beth El’s new synagogue on Seminary Road. First established in 1859 and the oldest Reform congregation in Northern Virginia, Beth El Hebrew Congregation had previously worshipped at a synagogue on North Washington Street from 1871 to 1954. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02101957BethElCornerstoneGazette.jpg | Cornerstone, Beth El Hebrew Congregation. Courtesy, Alexandria Gazette. | |
| 02/11 | 1799 | 134 North Royal Street | Gadsby's Tavern | Birthnight Ball, George Washington | On February 11, 1799, Alexandrians celebrated the annual Birthnight Ball at Gadsby’s Tavern, with guest of honor George Washington. Washington was actually born on that same date in 1732, but according to the Julian calendar. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/GTEventsBNB.jpg | Birthnight ball, Gadsby's Tavern. Office of Historic Alexandria. | |
| 02/12 | 1926 | African American, Black History Month | Alexandria celebrates African American heritage every month of the year, but before there was a designated Black History Month, Black History Week was started in 1926 by Dr. Carter G. Woodson to commemorate the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln on February 12th, and Frederick Douglass on February 14th. In many black communities, these birthdays were already commemorated in the years between 1865 and 1926. Black History Week evolved into Black History Month in 1976. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02121926UrbanSlavery.jpg | Martha Ann "Patty" Atavis, Baltimore, with Alice Lee Whitridge, one of the children in her care. Courtesy Maryland Historical Society. | |||
| 02/13 | 1855 | Potomac River | Potomac River frozen | On the morning of February 13, 1855, Alexandrians awoke to find the Potomac River frozen solid for miles up and down the river. Although all navigation ceased, townspeople that were brave enough were able to walk to the Maryland shore and back again. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02131855FrozenPotomacRecent.jpg | The Potomac River frozen over. | ||
| 02/13 | 1897 | George Washington, birthday celebration | On February 13, 1897, it was announced that there would be no public celebration of the birth of George Washington in the City of Alexandria that year. Due to the very difficult economic times, potential contributors to the celebration preferred that their funds be used instead to help the poor, and a large number of out-of-work firemen stressed that did not have money for the appropriate “trimmings” associated with being in a proper parade. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02131897GWPortrait.jpg | Portrait of George Washington (cropped from unfinished portrait), Gilbert Stewart, 1796, Museum of Fine Art, Boston. | |||
| 02/15 | 1910 | Emmett C. Dunn, building regulations, City Manager, Alexandria City Council | On February 15, 1910, the Alexandria City Council approved newly proposed building regulations prepared by City Engineer Emmett C. Dunn. Dunn developed these detailed regulations for architects and builders doing work in Alexandria to avoid misunderstandings. Dunn worked for the City for 46 years, including three years as City Manager. |
/uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02151910EmmettCDunn.jpg | Emmet C. Dunn. Courtesy, Alexandria Library Special Collections. | |||
| 02/17 | 1859 | 121 North Fairfax Street | Carlyle House | Mansion House Hotel, James Green, John Carlyle, Mercy Street | On February 17, 1859, the Mansion House Hotel, built in 1848 by local furniture manufacturer, James Green, and well-known as one of the most elegant hostelries on the Eastern seaboard, was reopened after a complete refurbishment. The Green's lived in the home of John Carlyle, one of the town's founders, and built the hotel across the front yard. The hotel on North Fairfax Street was redone with the finest interior decoration and furnishings available and newly arriving guests were awed by the lavishness. But Mr. Green’s magnificent renovation of Alexandria’s finest hotel was to be short-lived as tensions rose between the North and South, culminating in the election of President Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Just two years after the hotel reopened, anticipating that a civil war may be inevitable, the Alexandria Riflemen, Mount Vernon Guards, Old Dominion Rifles and Alexandria Artillery merged to form the Alexandria Battalion. On May 24, 1861, Alexandria was invaded by Union forces and became an occupied city. In early November of that year, the massive hotel, with a dumb waiter big enough to vertically transport a sick or wounded soldier, was confiscated by the Union Army for a general hospital to care for the ever-increasing numbers of sick and wounded Civil War soldiers in Northern Virginia. Green received a letter that stated he had three days to vacate the premises. The hospital story is featured in the PBS series, Mercy Street, airing Season 2 in January/February 2017. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02171859MansionHouse.jpg | Mansion House Hotel. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 02/19 | 1885 | Four Mile Run | Four Mile Station | Alexandria canal, train crash, Virginia Midland, Baltimore & Potomac | On February 19, 1885, a fatal train crash occurred at Four Mile Station when two trains collided near the Alexandria canal. Virginia Midland passenger train traveling north and a southbound Baltimore & Potomac train crashed around 10 p.m. and resulted in the deaths of at least seven people. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02191885FourMile.jpg | Portion of map, “Atlas of fifteen miles around Washington, including the counties of Fairfax and Alexandria, Virginia” by G.M. Hopkins, 1878. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 02/20 | 1755 | 121 North Fairfax Street | Carlyle House | General Edward Braddock, John Carlyle, Congress of Alexandria | On February 20, 1755 General Edward Braddock arrived at Hampton, Virginia to command British forces against New France in the American colonies. Less than two months later, on April 15 he met with five colonial governors at the Congress of Alexandria, held at the home of John Carlyle. Braddock had hoped to raise funding from the colonies to finance the French and Indian War, but was rebuffed in his efforts by the governors, who demanded that the United Kingdom honor its past promises of financial support. The meeting was one of the first instances of tension over taxation between the Americans colonies and Britain. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02201775BraddockLOC.JPG | General Braddock, printed by Wm. Sartain, NY, 1899. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 02/20 | 1775 | George Washington, State Convention | On February 20, 1775 George Washington cast a vote for himself at Alexandria in a successful bid to be elected as a delegate to the State Convention. 174 years later, on his exact birthday, February 22, 1949, 75,000 spectators turned out for Alexandria’s George Washington Birthday Parade tribute in his honor. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02131897GWPortrait.jpg | Portrait of George Washington (cropped from unfinished portrait), Gilbert Stewart, 1796, Museum of Fine Art, Boston. | |||
| 02/20 | 1859 | 310 South Royal Street | St. Mary's Hall | Church | On February 20, 1859, St. Mary’s Hall was formally opened on the northeast corner of Wolfe and South Royal streets. Built by the Young Catholic Friends Society, a benevolent organization in the St. Mary’s parish, the new building had separate educational spaces for boys and girls and a central hall on the second floor for meetings and Sunday school. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02201859StMarysHall.jpg | St. Mary's Hall, Courtesy, St. Mary’s Catholic Church. | |
| 02/20 | 1950 | North Washington Street and Oronoco Street | Civil Rights, Freeman H.M. Murray, W.E.B. DuBois, the Niagara Movement, NAACP | On February 20, 1950, civil rights pioneer and longtime Alexandria resident, Freeman H.M. Murray, 90, was struck and killed by a car at North Washington and Oronoco streets. Murray had been one of 29 men at a meeting organized by W.E.B. DuBois in 1905 on the Canadian side of the Niagara River. The meeting called for an end to racial discrimination and disenfranchisement, and the Niagara Movement led to the founding of the NAACP four years later in 1909. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02201950FHMMurray.jpg | Freeman H.M. Murray. Photo, UMass-Amherst Special Collections. | ||
| 02/22 | 1920 | 801 King Street | Richmond Theater | World War I, William Thomas | On February 22, 1920, Alexandria leaders held a special ceremony to present certificates of appreciation from the France government to the next-of-kin of Alexandria’s war dead. Twenty-seven men from Alexandria, including William Thomas, were honored for their sacrifice in World War I in a program at the Richmond Theater. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02221920WilliamThomasGrave.jpg | Grave of Wiliam Thomas. Courtesy, American Battle Monuments Commission. | |
| 02/22 | 1949 | 134 North Royal Street | Gadsby's Tavern | George Washington Birthday Parade, Edith Bolling Galt Wilson | On February 22, 1949, over 75,000 spectators turned out to view the George Washington Birthday Parade in Alexandria. That evening, Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, wife of the nation’s 28th President, Woodrow Wilson, was the guest of honor at a reception and ball held for Washington at Gadsby’s Tavern. Twelve years later Mrs. Wilson was again to be Alexandria’s guest of honor at the Woodrow Wilson Bridge dedication on her husband’s 105th birthday, December 28, 1961. Unfortunately, crowds already assembled for that ceremony learned she had died suddenly that very morning of congestive heart failure. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02221949EdithWilson.jpg | Edith Bolling Galt Wilson. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 02/25 | 1801 | District of Columbia, formation and retrocession | On February 25, 1801, the town of Alexandria was formally and legally designated as part of the District of Columbia, the new national capital being developed on lands formerly within the states of Maryland and Virginia. Alexandria remained part of the capital city until the late 1840’s when the land on the west side of the Potomac was retroceded back to Virginia by an act of Congress. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02251801DistrictOfColumbiaMap.jpg | Map of the District of Columbia. T.G. Bradford, 1835. Library of Congress. | |||
| 02/25 | 1915 | Prince Street and Saint Asaph Street | Mayor Thomas A. Fisher, Henry Fleischmann, Hotel Fleischmann, car accident | On February 25, 1915, Alexandria’s mayor was injured when the car he was driving turned over. Mayor Thomas A. Fisher and Harry Fleischmann, operator of the Hotel Fleischmann, were injured with their car skidded on wet pavement at the corner of Prince and St. Asaph streets. Fisher sustained a serious cut and Fleischmann suffered a broken arm in the wreck. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02251915HotelFleischmann.jpg | Hotel Fleischmann. | ||
| 02/25 | 1975 | Alexandria Archaeological Commission, City Council, archaeology | On February 25, 1975, the City of Alexandria established America’s first Archaeological Commission, to recommend policies for the protection and documentation of underground cultural resources in the municipality. The City’s urban renewal and redevelopment process in the mid-1960’s involved the demolition of dozens of historic buildings, most directly fronting street sidewalks, and their replacement by larger buildings, often set back from the street in what were formerly backyards or open areas. As construction progressed, the remains of 18th and 19th century privies, outbuildings and refuse middens were soon identified across multiple blocks and thousands of artifacts unearthed. Initially, the Smithsonian Institute stepped in to provide emergency archaeological services, but within several years permanent archaeologists were added to City staff. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02251975AACBrochure.jpg | Alexandria Archaeology Commission brochure. Courtesy, Alexandria Archaeology Museum. | |||
| 02/28 | 1844 | U.S. Steamship Princeton, accident, Navy, James Tyler, Dolley Madison, Abel P. Upshur, Thomas Gilmer | On February 28, 1844 the U.S.S. Princeton, the first screw steam warship of the United States Navy, left the docks of Alexandria with President James Tyler, former First Lady Dolley Madison and 400 other dignitaries aboard for a short pleasure cruise and demonstration of two new wrought iron guns installed on the ship after its completion in 1843. After lunching in the ship’s interior, the guests moved to the upper decks to view the gun demonstrations. As the presentation progressed, one of the guns suddenly exploded sending shrapnel into the crowd, killing nine and injuring 20. Although the President and Mrs. Madison escaped harm, Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur and Secretary of the Navy Thomas Gilmer were among those killed in the catastrophe. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02281844USSPrincetonExplosion.jpg | Lithograph, “Awful explosion of the peace-maker on board the U.S. Steam Frigate Princeton” by Currier & Ives. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |||
| 03/01 | 1790 | Census | On March 1, 1790, the Congress of the United States passed an act requiring a regular census of the United States. The first census completed that year determined that Virginia was the most populous state in the country with 747,610 residents; well more than double that of the State of New York. Fairfax County, of which Alexandria then a part, contained 12,320 residents, with 2,482 people living within the town itself. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03011790USMap1790.jpg | Map showing the population of the United States, from the 1790 Census. Courtesy, US Census Bureau. | |||
| 03/02 | 1867 | 201 South Washington Street | The Lyceum | Vote, African American, President Andrew Johnson, Fifteenth Amendment | On March 2, 1867, two to three hundred black men met at The Lyceum to demand the right to vote as full citizens in upcoming municipal elections. After City officials consulted with President Andrew Johnson and the U.S. Attorney General, it was agreed that African Americans could cast ballots, but that their votes would not be counted in the final tally. To keep the peace, two companies of U.S. troops and a battalion of cavalry were sent to Alexandria as about 1,000 African Americans voted for the Union ticket. It was not until 1870 that the Fifteenth Amendment was passed, granting voting rights to black citizens. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03021867LyceumCivilWar.jpg | The Lyceum during the Civil War. Photo by Andrew J. Russell. Courtesy, The Lyceum: Alexandria's History Museum. | |
| 03/02 | 1958 | Alexandria Public Schools | On March 2, 1958, Alexandria City Public Schools had 41 vacancies on its staff of 610 professional positions. At the time, the minimum salary for an Alexandria was $3,900 a year. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03021958GWschool.jpg | George Washington High School. | |||
| 03/04 | 1827 | 310 South Royal Street | St. Mary's Church | Catholic church, John Fitzgerald, George Washington | On March 4, 1827, St. Mary’s Catholic Church, the oldest Catholic parish in Virginia, was officially consecrated. The cornerstone had been set the summer before and when completed, the church building measured 45 feet by 60 feet. The church is said to have been started in 1795 when Colonel John Fitzgerald, a close friend and associate of George Washington, and an early mayor of Alexandria, took up a collection to fund construction of a small chapel at the southern end of South Washington Street, now the site of St. Mary’s Cemetery, where the street ended at the edge of Great Hunting Creek. According to local tradition, Washington himself made the first contribution to the effort to provide a house of worship for Catholics in Northern Virginia. In 1810, St. Mary’s moved to a new building closer to town, at 310 South Royal Street where it remains today. The land on which the original chapel once stood is still in use today as St. Mary’s Cemetery. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03041827StMarysChurch.jpg | St Mary's Church. | |
| 03/04 | 1861 | Abraham Lincoln, election, Civil War, secession | On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as President of the United States. The election of 1860 was hotly contested, with four candidates vying for the position. Lincoln received no majority in any Southern state and in Alexandria he received only two votes out of almost 1,000 cast. The outrage of his election in Southern states was so strong, that for his own safety, he had to enter the City of Washington secretly in the dark of night. Almost immediately votes of secession by state legislatures in the South began and within three months the American Civil War had begun. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03041861Map1860Election.jpg | Map of the 1860 Election. | |||
| 03/05 | 1910 | 200 block Prince Street | sidewalks | On March 5, 1910, sidewalks were being installed on Prince Street. A contractor laid out granolithic pavement on the north side of Prince between Lee and Fairfax streets. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03051910SidewalkPrinceSt.jpg | Prince Street, 1960s. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | ||
| 03/07 | 1887 | Stonewall Jackson, Little Sorrel | On March 7, 1887, Stonewall Jackson’s warhorse "Little Sorrel," mounted by a Washington, D.C. taxidermist, was exhibited in Alexandria. Although a scrawny and somewhat homely equestrian specimen, Little Sorrel was the favorite mount of Confederate hero-general Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, who respected the horse for his fierce charge and steady gait. After Jackson was killed by friendly at Chancellorsville, the horse became an attraction of sorts, beloved by Southerners for his dedication to his master. He died in Richmond in 1886 after falling from an improvised sling which, due to age and infirmity, was rigged together to help him stand. Soon after, he was mounted and presented to the Virginia Military Institute Museum, where he remains today, displayed near the raincoat that Stonewall Jackson was wearing when he was mortally wounded. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03071887LittleSorrel.jpg | Little Sorrel, at the Virginia Military Institute Museum. | |||
| 03/09 | 1855 | 2823 King Street | Ivy Hill Cemetery | On March 9, 1855, stockholders for a new cemetery held a meeting to elect a president and board of directors. The location of the new cemetery, which was later named Ivy Hill, was described in the Alexandria Gazette as a “most beautiful one.” | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03091855IvyHill.jpg | Ivy Hill Cemetery. | ||
| 03/10 | 1874 | Lee Street | Robert E. Lee, Water Street | On March 10, 1874, the Alexandria City Council passed a resolution to change the name of Water Street to Lee Street in honor of Robert E. Lee who had died in 1870. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03101874Map1749.jpg | Plan of Alexandria, 1749. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | ||
| 03/10 | 1965 | Gadsby's Urban Renewal Project, Gadsby's Tavern, City Hall, Market Square | On March 10, 1965 construction began to implement the controversial Gadsby’s Urban Renewal Project, in the heart of downtown Alexandria. approved by City Council in a close 4-3 vote. In the early 1960’s “urban renewal” in the United States focused largely on the demolition and reconstruction of deteriorated downtown areas, rather than the restoration of historic buildings to revitalize city centers, a concept that emerged a decade later. In Alexandria, renewal was originally proposed for a twelve block area further west along King Street, but ultimately moved east, centered on the area around Gadsby’s Tavern, City Hall and Market Square. Ultimately, the project involved excavation of entire blocks at and near Market Square, as well as demolition of 18th- and 19th-century buildings considered at the time as contributing to blighted conditions in what would come to be known as “Old Town.” Although the project resulted in the demolition of dozens of early buildings in the nation’s third oldest historic district, the economic impact of the development soon reversed years of decline. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03101965GadsbysBlock.jpg | 400 Block of King Street, during the Gadsby's Urban Renewal Project, 1960s. Gadsby's Tavern and City Hall can be seen in the distance. | |||
| 03/11 | 1790 | 213 Cameron Street | Wise's Tavern | Thomas Jefferson | On March 11, 1790, several months after his return from France where he succeeded Benjamin Franklin as Minister of France, Thomas Jefferson was feted at Wise’s Tavern, located on the northeast corner of Cameron and North Fairfax Streets. Immediately upon his return, President Washington had requested Jefferson to accept the post of Secretary of State, which he accepted. He was sworn in just eleven days after the Alexandria celebration and served as the nation’s top diplomat until the last day of 1793. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03111790Jefferson.jpg | Thomas Jefferson, engraved by Ole Erickson, c.1876. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 03/13 | 1847 | Retrocession, District of Columbia | On March 13, 1847, Alexandria was formally retroceded from the District of Columbia back to the Commonwealth of Virginia. In 1801, the national capital was officially designated on lands donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, with the small seaport communities of Georgetown, Maryland and Alexandria, Virginia included within the diamond-shaped, 100 mile square boundary of the new city. But development of Federal government buildings was restricted almost exclusively to the east side of the Potomac River, and Alexandria’s formerly robust economy slowly stagnated, with residents complaining about their reduced influence in the planned metropolis. Further complicating the issue were concerns about laws and policies in the District, including slavery, that were evolving differently from the established view in Southern states that threatened to isolate Alexandria further from its immediate surroundings. These economic conditions, loss of voting rights and a proposal to outlaw slavery within the District in the 1840’s compelled Alexandrians to successfully petition Congress to allow their area to return to Virginia. Finally, Congress agreed with Alexandrians that the former lands of the Old Dominion should be returned to the Commonwealth as Alexandria County. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03131847RetrocessionMap1910.jpg | Map of Retrocession. The Washington Herald, January 18th, 1910. | |||
| 03/14 | 1801 | 134 North Royal Street | Gadsby's Tavern | Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr, inaugural dinner, National Intelligencer | On March 14, 1801, two weeks after being sworn in to office, President Thomas Jefferson and Vice President Aaron Burr enjoyed an inaugural dinner at Gadsby’s Tavern. The National Intelligencer newspaper recalled that, “the style and elegance with which it was furnished…reflect the highest credit on the taste and industry of Mr. Gadsby.” Proprietor John Gadsby had previously hosted events for Presidents George Washington and John Adams. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03141801JohnGadsby.jpg | Portrait of John Gadsby. Courtesy, Gadsby's Tavern Museum. | |
| 03/15 | 1762 | 408 Duke Street | Elisha Cullen Dick House | George Washington, 517 Prince Street, 211 Prince Street, Quaker Burial Ground, Barrett Branch Library | On March 15, 1762, 1762, Alexandria physician Dr. Elisha Cullen Dick was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania. At the age of twenty he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School and soon after married Hannah Harmon and moved to Alexandria where he took over the practice of Dr. William Rumney. He became a close friend of George Washington and was the attending physician at his death. Although a fine doctor, Dick speculated extensively in real estate and ultimately went bankrupt in 1801 when economic circumstances retrenched. He lost his home at 408 Duke Street, and rented homes at 517 and 211 Prince Street. But he was always a well-respected member of the community, and was elected Mayor of Alexandria, serving from 1804 to 1805. He died in 1825 and is buried at the Quaker Burial Ground, now the site of the Alexandria Library Barrett Branch on Queen Street. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03151762ElishaCullenDick.png | Portrait of Dr. Elisha Cullen Dick. | |
| 03/17 | 1856 | Alexandria Steam Ferry Company | On March 17, 1856, the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation authorizing the Alexandria Steam Ferry Company. The ferry company was permitted to operate across the Potomac, carrying passengers from Alexandria to Washington, D.C. and Maryland and back. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03171856AlexandriaFerry.jpg | Alexandria Steam Ferry. | |||
| 03/17 | 1862 | 3737 Seminary Road | Virginia Theological Seminary | President Lincoln, General George McClellan, Civil War, Army of the Potomac | On March 17, 1862, six days after President Lincoln removed him as general-in-chief, General George McClellan makes his headquarters at Virginia Theological Seminary, off Seminary Road, leading only the Army of the Potomac. That same day the army began to set sail from Alexandria’s waterfront for the coming Peninsula Campaign, with a huge armada of soldiers, horses and supplies. The number of saloons in the City increases to 43 from 3 a year earlier. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03171862GeorgeMcClellan.jpg | Major Gen. George B. McClellan. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 03/17 | 1935 | Corporal Charles J. McClary, Alexandria Police Department, prohibition | On March 17, 1935, Corporal Charles J. McClary, a member of the Alexandria Police Department, was shot and killed in the line of duty. Corporal McClary and eight other Alexandria officers joined a posse in Loudoun County searching for a moonshiner wanted for shooting a federal agent. The suspect fatally wounded Corporal McClary before being captured later that day. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03171935Mcclary1927.jpg | Charles J. McClary, 1927. Alexandria Police Department. | |||
| 03/18 | 1784 | Gen. Baron Von Stueben, Prussia, George Washington | On March 18, 1784, Revolutionary War hero Friedrich Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand Steuben, better known as Gen. Baron Von Steuben, passed through Alexandria after visiting with his former commander, General George Washington at Mount Vernon. The Prussian-born military genius was Washington’s chief of staff during the final years of the war and a brilliant scholar on tactics and discipline. He was also the author of the military drill manual for the United States that remained in effect until the War of 1812. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03181784vonSteuben.jpeg | Portrait of Von Steuben by Ralph Earl. Courtesy, New York State Historical Society. | |||
| 03/19 | 1855 | 107 South Alfred Street | Friendship Firehouse | Fire | On March 19, 1855, a fire destroyed the Friendship Firehouse on South Alfred Street. The fire broke out around 11 p.m. and though the equipment and engine were saved, the structure was destroyed. A new firehouse, which still stands today, was completed later that year. To learn more, visit the Friendship Firehouse Museum or read more in the Historic Alexandria Quarterly. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03191855Friendship.jpg | Friendship Firehouse Museum. Office of Historic Alexandria. | |
| 03/19 | 1887 | Malcolm M. Smith, train accident | Around March 19, 1887, a “lady friend” of Alexandria engineer Malcolm M. Smith presented him with the badly damaged shoe he had been wearing during the horrific Virginia Midland railroad collision that occurred near Accotink Bridge on November 4, 1884. The shoe had been bronzed, decorated with gold cord and the handsome picture of a locomotive, and lined with blue velvet to serve as a card receiver for the sentiments of well-wishers. Although Mr. Brown’s spinal injuries were at first considered incurable, with surgery and recuperation at St. Luke’s Home in Richmond for over two years, he was finally able to walk without a cane and declared completely cured when he returned home to Alexandria in January 1887. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03191887Card.jpg | Greeting card. | |||
| 03/19 | 1936 | King Street | Storms, flood | From March 15-20, 1936, the Eastern half of the United States was bombarded by four separate storms, all of which impacted Alexandria with record amounts of rainfall and melting snow causing massive flooding in the Potomac River. The weather had been unseasonably warm earlier in the month with heavier than usual rainfall that, though not a threat, caused the ground to become saturated. Then a sudden cold snap caused a heavy snowfall, followed by five days of near constant rain. As one storm passed, a new one emerged causing both polar and tropical fronts to pass over the city from all directions, with the last storm remaining stationary over the region with hours of torrential rain. By March 19, at 4:45 p.m., the Potomac reached its peak of level of 28.1 feet, isolating Alexandria for days and putting the nearby Washington Airport almost completely underwater. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03221903FloodedKingSt.jpg | Flooding at the foot of King Street. | ||
| 03/21 | 1813 | Secretary of War James Armstrong, British invasion, War of 1812, President James Madison | On March 21, 1813, a group of representatives from Alexandria met with Secretary of War James Armstrong in Washington requesting that arms be provided to protect the southern approaches to the nation’s capital from a possible British invasion during the War of 1812. Although newly appointed to the post by President James Madison, Armstrong was convinced that enemy forces would not attack the city, and he took few steps to support the Alexandria appeal, even after Alexandria’s Common Council lent the federal government $35,000, obtained through bank loans, to improve fortifications and defenses southward along the Potomac. A year and a half later, after the burning of Washington and surrender of Alexandria to the enemy, Armstrong was forced to resign. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03211813JamesArmstrongRembrandtPeale.jpg | James Armstrong, portrait by Rembrandt Peale. | |||
| 03/22 | 1903 | 200-400 blocks South Royal Streets | Flood | On March 22, 1903, heavy rains and winds caused some local streets to become flooded. On South Royal Street between Prince and Wilkes, water covered the street and “extended from curb to curb,” the Alexandria Gazette reported. The Gazette also reported that the bad weather was responsible for the “many empty pews in the churches.” | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03221903FloodedKingSt.jpg | King Street flooded. | ||
| 03/24 | 1925 | Vaccination of dogs, distemper, rabies | On March 24, 1925, Alexandria received national attention for its efforts to insure the vaccination of dogs against canine distemper and rabies. The development of pet vaccines had only begun a couple of years earlier and few municipalities had yet accepted that responsibility. But with a large number of dogs in the city, many roaming freely, officials acted quickly to curb a potential public health menace. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03241925DogVaccinations.jpg | Dog vaccinations. | |||
| 03/25 | 1844 | 201 South Washington Street | The Lyceum | African Colonization Society, Liberia, Quakers, abolitionists, slaveholders | On March 25, 1844 a meeting of the African Colonization Society was held at The Lyceum. Known formally as The Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America, an organization that supported the resettlement of free blacks in American back to Africa. Founded in 1816, the group helped to create the including the colony of Liberia, established in 1821. Ironically, members of the ACS represented two diametrically opposed constituencies; Quakers, evangelicals and other abolitionists that opposed slavery, and ardent slaveholders in the Chesapeake region that fought against regulated abolition but saw free blacks as a potential threat to the institution of slavery that could incite slave rebellions. Both groups viewed “repatriation” to Africa as the best option available to support their cause during the 19th century decades before the Civil War. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03251844LiberiaMap.jpg | Map of Liberia. | |
| 03/26 | 1839 | 201 South Washington Street | The Lyceum | Alexandria Lyceum Company, Alexandria Library Company | On March 26, 1839, the Alexandria Lyceum Company and the Alexandria Library Company formally announced plans to join together in sharing a new Greek Revival-style building at 201 S. Washington Street. Alexandria’s Lyceum was modeled after the American lyceum (ly-SEE-um) movement which began in the 1820s with Josiah Holbrook, who admired various institutions in England that had been established for public education. While still a novel concept in the United States at that time, public education was rapidly gaining support through the efforts of men like Josiah Holbrook and Horace Mann. In 1826, the first American lyceum opened in Milbury, Massachusetts, and the rocky soil of New England proved to be very fertile ground for this endeavor. Soon there were lyceums throughout the region, which benefited from numerous cities and towns as well as good transportation systems for both traveling lecturers and their listeners. The situation was different in the South, however, where a more dispersed populace and a tradition of private schooling were among the obstacles to attracting audiences to the few early lyceums. Only in the cities did southern lyceum organizers meet with much success. In 1838, a Quaker teacher named Benjamin Hallowell and six other prominent Alexandrians formed The Alexandria Lyceum and began to offer a series of lectures and debates on a variety of topics. Typically held in Hallowell's school, the lectures most often concerned biology and philosophy, subjects which never failed to engage Alexandrians at this period. Discussions of politics and religion were expressly barred, since they frequently led to heated arguments. |
/uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03021867LyceumCivilWar.jpg | The Lyceum during the Civil War. Photo by Andrew J. Russell. Courtesy, The Lyceum: Alexandria's History Museum. | |
| 03/28 | 1904 | Trash collection | On March, 28, 1904, the Alexandria City Engineer authorized construction of new, wooden “Waste Paper Boxes” to be installed throughout the downtown area of the city. Built by local mechanics J.Y. Williams and R.F. Downham, a sample box was placed on exhibit for public view at 312 King Street. The sturdy box was paint a dark gray with hand-lettered advertising of major Alexandria merchants and was considered “a work of art.” It was hoped that residents would use the new refuse boxes, and stop their habit of discarding unwanted paper, fruit peels and other trash in the streets of the downtown area. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03281904ECDunnCityEngineer.jpg | E. C. Dunn, City Engineer. | |||
| 03/28 | 1919 | Jones Point | Virginia Shipbuilding | Fire | On March 28, 1919, the Virginia Shipbuilding yard at Jones Point was damaged by fire. A blowtorch used for welding exploded and ignited a fire that seriously burned two employees. The coppersmith shop sustained significant damage, estimated at $40,000. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03281919Shipyard.jpg | Virginia Shipbuilding Corporation, Jones Point. | |
| 03/29 | 1851 | 201 Prince Street | Athenaeum | Bank of the Old Dominion, Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association, National Register of Historic Places | On March 29, 1851, the Bank of the Old Dominion was incorporated and opened its bank at 201 Prince Street the following year. Today the former bank building is known as The Athenaeum and is owned by the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association, which purchased it in the 1960s. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03291851Athenaeum.jpg | The Athenaeum, 201 Prince Street. | |
| 03/29 | 1903 | National Airport | Plane accident, "Star of Rome" | On March 29, 1946, a TWA flight landing at National Airport overshot the runway and landed on the Mount Vernon Memorial Highway. The “Star of Rome,” a Lockheed Constellation, was arriving from Paris after a stop in New York when its brakes locked while landing. No one was seriously injured. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03291903TWA.jpg | TWA poster. | ||
| 03/30 | 1841 | 614 Oronoco Street | Lee-Fendall House | President John Quincy Adams, Edmund Jennings Lee | On March 30 and 31, 1841, former President John Quincy Adams visited Edmund Jennings Lee at his home at 614 Oronoco Street. Adams had dinner and breakfast at Lee’s home, today known as the Lee-Fendall House. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03301841LeeFendall.jpg | The Lee-Fendall House, 614 Oronoco Street. | |
| 03/31 | 1908 | 426 King Street, 500-508 King Street | Lannon's Opera House | Alexandria Amusement Co, Elks Club | The popularity of moving pictures was reaching fever pitch in Alexandria during 1908. During the last week of March in that year, the Alexandria Amusement Co. at 426 King Street featured The New Passion Play, a one-hour film priced at 10 cents with live religious music. A block away, at the large Opera House on the corner of King & Pitt Streets, The Metropolitan Moving Picture Company featured changing one-hour “pantomimes ... of a high order,” with live singing for just five cents. On March 31, the City Engineer served an order to the Elks Club to stop work on a wood frame motion picture screen being constructed at their Prince Street site without a permit. In response, a number of City Councilmen quickly vowed to sign a paper authorizing the work to continue. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03311908LannonOperaHouseLOC.jpg | Lannon’s Opera House. Courtesy Library of Congress. | |
| 03/31 | 1841 | Lee Corner | John Quincy Adams, Edmund J. Lee, Amistad, slavery, abolition | On March 31, 1841, former President John Quincy Adams visited his old friend, Edmund J. Lee, who lived at the famous “Lee Corner” at North Washington and Oronoco Streets. The visit occurred just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court decision was announced in the famous Amistad case, which concerned an 1839 shipboard mutiny by captured Africans that occurred off the coast of Cuba. Intent on returning to Africa, the ship was later intercepted by U.S. officials off of Long Island, New York, and those escaping slavery were put on trial for killing the ship’s captain and cook, and seizing the Spanish owned vessel. Adams, who vehemently opposed slavery, was asked to represent the Africans on trial by abolitionist Lewis Tappan, and spoke before the Court for four hours straight in their defense. His arguments were successful, and the mutineers were ordered free and returned to their homeland by the Court decision. Decades before the Civil War began, Adams accurately predicted that, if not abolished, the evolving divide between the Northern and Southern states over the institution of slavery would ultimately tear the United States apart. |
/uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03311841JQAdams.png | John Quincy Adams. Daguerreotype, Philip Haas 1843. | ||
| 04/01 | 1862 | Winslow Homer, Civil War, Peninsula Campaign, Major General George McLellan, Harper's Weekly | On April 1, 1862, the noted American landscape painted Winslow Homer was in Alexandria, sketching Union soldiers leaving the city for Fort Monroe as part of Major General George McClellan’s “Peninsula Campaign.” The drawing depicts “General McClellan's Sixth Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment Ready to Embark at Alexandria for Old Point Comfort.” A native of Boston, Homer was first taught painting by his mother, but in 1859 the 23-year-old artist moved to New York City where he established a studio and attended art classes at the National Academy of design. His progress as an artist and illustrator was rapid and in 1861 Harper’s magazine sent him to Virginia to produce illustrations of the Civil War. He accompanied the Union Army units for about two months, sailing down the Potomac from Alexandria to Fort Monroe and Yorktown in the Tidewater region. His sketch of the Pennsylvania soldiers in Alexandria helped introduce his artistic style and flair for the dramatic. His work in Virginia covering McClellan and his forces as they moved towards Richmond proved to be very significant in developing a foundation for his artist style, and laid the groundwork for his true artistic transition from illustrator to painter. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04011862Homer6thCavalry.jpg | General McClellan's Sixth Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment Ready to Embark at Alexandria for Old Point Comfort, by Winslow Homer. Courtesy, Smithsonian Institution (Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and National Portrait Gallery). | |||
| 04/04 | 1861 | Ordinance of Secession, Virginia State Convention, Confederacy, George Brent, Fort Sumter, President Lincoln | On April 4, 1861 the Virginia State Convention rejected a motion to adopt an Ordinance of Secession from the United States. The Convention began its work on February 13 of that year, nine days after seven southern states seceded to create the Confederacy. Alexandria’s chosen representative, Unionist George Brent, originally voted against secession, but changed his vote after the attack on Fort Sumter, and President Lincoln’s response calling for troops to be assembled from all states. Ultimately, Alexandria citizens voted 9 to 1 in support in of Virginia’s secession. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04041861GeorgeBrent.jpg | George Brent. Courtesy, FindaGrave.com. | |||
| 04/04 | 1901 | 500-508 King Street | Lannon's Opera House | Uncle Tom's Cabin, Al. W. Martin, C.H. Smith, theatre, theater | On April 4, 1901, Al. W. Martin’s spectacular production of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” took place at the Opera House on the southwest corner of King and South Pitt Streets. The “mammoth” theatrical presentation, as opposed to C.H. Smith’s competing “double mammoth” production of the same play, was on tour after a successful run in New York City the previous winter. The cast and crew came to Alexandria on its own specially-built train, complete with scenery, costumes, and a host of live animals including horses, burros, donkeys, Shetland ponies and bloodhounds. Although Martin claimed his show was “America’s foremost production of the greatest book ever written,” describing it in advertisements as “mammoth,” a competitor, C. H. Smith, described his production of the same play as “double mammoth” on similar posters. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04041901MartinUncleTomsCabinPoster.jpg | Poster for A. W. Martin's Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1898. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 04/06 | 1900 | 400 North Pitt Street | Old Police Headquarters | Alexandria Police Department, Benjamin Franklin Bettis, Herbert Knight | On April 6, 1900, the Mayor of Alexandria took time to commend the Alexandria Police for their diligence in protecting Alexandrians through their efficient police methods. Police Officers Benjamin Franklin “Frank” Bettis and Herbert Knight had quickly arrested a young man the night before, who had fired a pistol near Royal and Princess Streets. Faced with this one issue in the Mayor’s courtroom the next morning, and with only three other “lodgers” at the Police station house overnight, the Mayor noted “. . . there is less violation of laws than ever before in the history of the Town.” The pistol-toting man was fined $10 and his gun confiscated. Later that morning, Officer Knight saw even more action when he killed a mad dog on South Fairfax Street. Although not technically on duty, the officer nevertheless responded to the alarm. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04061900Bettis.jpg | Benjamin Franklin Bettis, Alexandria Police Department. | |
| 04/07 | 1846 | 301 King Street | City Hall | Market House Museum, Masonic Lodge, Lafayette | On April 7. 1846 the City of Alexandria authorized the first paid curator at the Market House Museum, then located in the second City Hall building which faced North Royal Street. Originally established in 1812, in conjunction with Alexandria’s Masonic Lodge which leased the space in the northwest second floor corner of the building, the museum was often the site of major events, including a festive reception for the Marquis de Lafayette when he visited Alexandria for a month in 1824. Originally, museum artifacts relating mostly to George Washington were placed decades before by the local Masonic Lodge, of which the nation’s first President was a member. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04071846OldDrawingCityHall.jpg | Drawing of the old Alexandria City Hall. | |
| 04/07 | 1950 | 717 Queen Street | Barrett Library | Microfilm, Alexandria Gazette, Alexandria Library Special Collections | On April 7, 1950, the Alexandria Gazette announced that the Library of Congress had completed microfilming its old issues. It took three years to film the collection, which then covered 166 years of daily news. The microfilm is available at the Alexandria Library Special Collections. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04071950Microfilm.jpg | Developing microfilm, 1942. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 04/08 | 1861 | East Monroe Avenue, at Route 1 | Almshouse | Overseers of the Poor | April 8, 1861, an election was held to determine the Overseers of the Poor. This four-member board was responsible for the Almshouse, the publicly-funded poorhouse where indigent tenants worked, growing their own food on a large tract of farmland. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04081861Almshouse.jpg | Alexandria Almshouse. Courtesy, Alexandria Library Special Collections. | |
| 04/09 | 1865 | Robert E. Lee, Fall of Richmond, Civil War | When news of the fall of the Confederate capital at Richmond reached Alexandria during the first week of April 1865, days before the surrender of Robert E, Lee’s forces at Appomattox, the grim city immediately took on a festive air. The first sign was the tolling of church bells throughout the downtown, and later the firing of victory rounds at local fortifications as a salute by Union soldiers. The celebration by Union forces and those loyal to their cause lasted several days, with parades spontaneously occurring on main thoroughfares and constant noise making of citizens by blowing horns and whistles. American flags sprouted from many homes and businesses, and those structures that did not display “Old Glory’ were subject to vandalism and public scorn. It was the darkest of times for Alexandrians that supported the Confederate cause, as they remained hidden in their homes, praying for some miracle that might yet emerge in the final days of the war. But when Lee’s surrender at Appomattox finally occurred on April 9, all hope was lost. But in their defeat they were at least comforted by the end of the conflict, and the new opportunities that lay ahead for their city. |
/uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05041869RELee1867.jpg | Robert E. Lee, photograph by Matthew Brady. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |||
| 04/10 | 1907 | South Henry Street | Eggs, chickens, John Travers, farm | In the early Spring of 1907, a number of Alexandria residents came forth with reports of the unusual fecundity of fowls belonging to them, some with their eggs linked, others with their daily egg output suddenly multiplied. On April 10 of that year, it was reported that Mr. John Travers of South Henry Street had the most unusual output of all. One of his hens had laid a huge “triplicate” egg, the size of a goose egg that, when opened revealed three distinct eggs inside. The event was described locally as just “another lusus naturae,” meaning “freak of nature.” | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04101907ThreeEggYolks.jpg | Three egg yolks. | ||
| 08/11 | 1885 | Alexandria Light Infantry, President Ulysses S. Grant, Steamship Excelsior | On August 11, 1885, the Alexandria Light Infantry returned home to Alexandria after attending the funeral of former President Ulysses S. Grant in New York City three days earlier. The unit arrived in Alexandria on the Steamship Excelsior. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04111885GrantFuneral.jpg | Funeral of Ulysses S. Grant. Courtesy, New York Historical Society. | |||
| 04/12 | 1947 | South Quaker Lane | Fruit Growers Express | FGE, fire | On April 12, 1947, a fire at the Fruit Growers Express caused more than $300,000 in damage. Fourteen rail cars were destroyed and another two dozen were damaged at the refrigerator car manufacturing and service facility. Alexandria’s Fruit Growers Express facility, known locally as FGE, was a railroad leasing company that provided “reefer fleets”, temperature controlled freight cars designed to transport tons of perishable produce daily along the east coast of the United States | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04121947FGEFire.jpg | Fruit Grower's Express fire. Courtesy, Andrew J. Saulnier and Alexandria Retired Police, Fire and Sheriff Association. | |
| 04/13 | 1876 | Queen and Lee Streets | Brass foundry | On April 13, 1876, building supply entrepreneur John Leatherland and his son, John W., opened a new brass foundry at Queen and Lee Streets, aptly named Leatherland and Son. The new industrial facility opened its doors just in time to be featured on page 102 of Chataigne’s Alexandria City Directory, that also included several other listings outlining the extensive business interests of the Leatherland family in the city during the last quarter of the 19th century. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04131876Leatherland.PNG | Chataigne's Alexandria City Directory, 1876. | ||
| 04/13 | 1943 | Annexation, Fairfax County, swine, housing | On April 13, 1943, nearly ten years before the City of Alexandria annexed rural land from Fairfax County west of North Quaker lane, City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting the keeping of swine within the city boundaries. Development to house federal workers and military personnel associated with the war effort, included in-fill housing downtown and suburban developments on the city’s second “West End” between North Quaker Lane and Del Ray, quickly eliminated public tolerance of livestock and agricultural pursuits in the rapidly growing city. | |||||
| 04/14 | 1865 | Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, assassination, John Wilkes Booth | On Friday, April 14, 1865, a procession of Union troops fourteen blocks long paraded through Alexandria to mark the anniversary of the start of the Civil War and the renewed Union control of Fort Sumter, the South Carolina fortification where the war had begun just four years earlier. But by the very next morning, Alexandrians were stunned to hear rumors of the shooting of President Lincoln the evening before, and then confirmation of his death by Dr. David P. Smith, the surgeon in charge, when he returned to Alexandria early that morning. With the escape of assassin John Wilkes Booth, and fearing a larger conspiracy, guards were immediately posted at all entry points to Alexandria preventing any passage to civilians. That evening a citizen meeting developed plans for a period of mourning, including the closing of all businesses, placement of black crepe on homes and public buildings, and the tolling of bells throughout the City. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04141865LincolnMourningRibbon.jpg | Mourning Ribbon. | |||
| 04/15 | 1791 | Jones Point | Jones Point | Boundary stone, Alexandria Masonic Lodge, District of Columbia | On April 15, 1791, the first boundary stone of the District of Columbia was laid at Jones Point in Alexandria. During a ceremony, the Alexandria Masonic Lodge set the stone at the south corner of the boundary of the new federal district. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04151791BoundaryStone.jpg | Boundary stone at Jones Point. | |
| 04/15 | 1847 | 201 South Washington Street | The Lyceum | General Tom Thumb, Charles Sherwood Stratton, P.T. Barnum | On April 15, 1847, General Tom Thumb appeared at The Lyceum. The performer is seen in this 1850 image with promoted P.T. Barnum. Then only nine-years-old and born in Bridgeport, CT with the name Charles Sherwood Stratton, the youngster was advertised by circus showman P.T. Barnum as much older, and brought from Europe “at great expense.” Measuring only 25 inches tall and weighing only 15 pounds, “The Man in Miniature” performed comical acts based on Napoleon Bonaparte, a Scottish Highlander, and other characters as part of his routine. After appearing in Alexandria, he performed in Richmond the same week. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04151847TomThumb.jpg | Tom Thumb and P.T. Barnum. Daguerreotype by Samuel Root, c. 1850. Courtesy: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. | |
| 04/15 | 1910 | Civic Improvement League, typhoid fly, mosquito | On April 15, 1910, the Civic Improvement League proclaimed a universal clean-up day in Alexandria, urging all residents to “join in the movement.” The League argued that the huge accumulations of kitchen waste, trash and filth that were routinely deposited in certain areas during the winter months were a major sanitary and aesthetic hazard to the City’s health and appearance. The cleansing of the City’s private yards and alleys, and the sprinkling of lime over damp areas throughout the City, were both deemed necessary to eliminate breeding grounds for the dreaded “typhoid fly” and mosquito. Over a dozen private businesses provided teams and carts to supplement City crews in the clean-up effort. |
/uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04151910CleanupDayBrickWagon.jpg | Alexandria Brick Co. wagon. Souvenir Virginia Tercentennial 1607-1907 of Historic Alexandria, Virginia, by Andrew J. Wedderburn (Alexandria, 1907). | |||
| 04/16 | 1789 | George Washington, Mount Vernon, inauguration | On April 16, 1789, George Washington “. . . bade adieu to Mount Vernon, to private life, and to domestic felicity” on a weeklong journey to his inauguration in New York as the nation’s first President. Along the way, Washington was feted by the people of Alexandria on April 19, with other public celebrations occurring in Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia and Trenton upon his arrival in those cities. He finally reached Manhattan on April 23 and one week later was sworn in as POTUS at Federal Hall on Wall Street, now the site of the New York Stock Exchange. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02131897GWPortrait.jpg | Portrait of George Washington, Gilbert Stewart. | |||
| 04/18 | 1955 | Salk polio vaccine, Alexandria City Public Schools | On April 18, 1955, two dozen school children in Alexandria received the Salk polio vaccine. The first and second graders were the first in the metropolitan area to receive the shots although Fairfax County had participated in the nationwide trials a year before. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04181955Salk.jpg | Jonas Salk, inventor of the polio vaccine. Getty Images. | |||
| 04/19 | 1900 | 218 North Columbus Street | Odd Fellows Hall | Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, bazaar | On April 19, 1900, the women of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church hosted a bazaar at the Odd Fellows Hall on North Columbus Street. The hall was decorated and booths offered confectionery assortments, lemonade, and flowers. The Alexandria Gazette reported that the “evening was enlivened with fine music and singing.” | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04191900OddFellowsHall.jpg | Odd Fellows Hall. Photo, Victor Amato, Ethelyn Cox Collection/Alexandria Library Special Collections. | |
| 04/21 | 1893 | George Carroll, African American, Civil War, Josiah H. Davis, slavery, plaster mill, Alexandria National Cemetery, Grand Army of the Republic, GAR | On April 21, 1893, Alexandrians were saddened to learn of the death the evening before of George Carroll, a well-known and affable African American who had served in the Union Army during the Civil War. Before the war, Carroll had served as a slave in the home of Josiah H. Davis and as a boy, had worked at the old plaster mill on the waterfront between Prince and Duke Streets. He was described as a sort of sui generis, a one-of-a-kind individual who walked about the City in singular fashion, wearing a battered stovepipe hat pulled down over one eye, with hands in pockets. Carroll was a member of Alexandria’s Sumner Post, Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), a fraternal organization of nearly 400,000 Union Army veterans by 1890, which advocated for pensions for veterans, voting rights for black veterans and advancement of advocacy groups in American politics. Carroll was buried in the Soldier’s Cemetery with Father Kenefick of St. Mary’s R.C. Church officiating, and members of the Sumner Post GAR committing his body to the grave. |
/uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04211893NationalCemetery.jpg | Alexandria National Cemetery, 1860s. Photo, Andrew Russell, Library of Congress. | |||
| 04/22 | 1890 | South Washington Street at Church Street | Alexandria Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery | Alexandria Brick Company, Freedmen's Cemetery, African American | On April 22, 1890, the Alexandria Brick Company opened a new brick kiln off South Washington Street, in the area where the street ended at Hunting Creek, before the construction of the George Washington Memorial Parkway extended the roadway southward in the early 1930’s. Excavation for clay to make bricks took place on land that is now the Hunting Point apartment complex, and on property adjacent to the Freedmen’s Cemetery. Within two years, on March 29, 1892, an article in the Washington Post commented that the excavations within the brickyard had undermined the cemetery grounds to the point that coffins were sticking out of a hillside “like cannon from the embrasures of some great fort.” At the time, a brickworks employee commented to the news reporter that, “The bricks from that clay will be good to build haunted houses with.” This newspaper article led Alexandria Historian T. Michael Miller to discover the existence of the long-forgotten burial place for African American Contrabands and Freedmen, and to the subsequent memorial that opened on the site in 2015. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04221890AlexBrickCoWagon.jpg | Alexandria Brick Co. wagon. Souvenir Virginia Tercentennial 1607-1907 of Historic Alexandria, Virginia, by Andrew J. Wedderburn (Alexandria, 1907). | |
| 04/24 | 1865 | Wilkes Street | Alexandria National Cemetery | Abraham Lincoln, assassination, Quartermaster Corps | On April 24, 1865, four men pursuing Lincoln's killer drowned in the Rappahannock River. Quartermaster Corps employees Peter Carroll, Samuel N. Gosnell, George W. Huntington, and Christopher Farley were buried at Alexandria National Cemetery. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04241865NationalCemetery.jpg | Alexandria National Cemetery. | |
| 04/24 | 1940 | 902 Wythe Street | Alexandria Black History Museum | Robinson Library, sit-in, Robert H. Robinson, Roberts Memorial United Methodist Church | On April 24, 1940, the Robert Robinson Library opened its doors to the African American community, just eight months after one of America's first “sit-in” demonstrations took place at the segregated Alexandria Library on Queen Street. The library was named after Robert H. Robinson, a former slave who became a pastor at a church on South Washington Street known today as Roberts Memorial United Methodist Church. The old Robinson Library building now houses the Alexandria Black History Museum. The present-day Barrett Branch Library, originally called Alexandria Library, was built as a public facility in 1937 but was only available to whites. In response to this inequality, young attorney Samuel Tucker prepared a select group of African American men for a deliberate act of civil disobedience. On Friday, August 21, 1939, patrons and staff at the library were shocked when several young African American men entered the building, took a seat, and began to read quietly. Police were called and the men soon found themselves charged with disorderly conduct. Tucker’s defense of the men planned to legally challenge the city on the grounds that all citizens were entitled to equal access to public facilities and services. However, the city government quickly negotiated a settlement with other leaders of the city’s African American community to construct a “separate but equal” library in the Parker-Gray neighborhood. Furious, Tucker refused to accept a card at the new “separate but equal” library, insisting that people of color be allowed to use any public facilities and resources paid for with their tax dollars. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04241940RobinsonLibraryInterior.jpg | Story time at Robert Robinson Library. Courtesy, Office of Historic Alexandria. | |
| 04/25 | 1752 | 301 King Street | City Hall | On April 25, 1752, the Fairfax County Courthouse and jail was moved from an area near present day Tysons Corner, to the Alexandria Town Hall at the corner of Cameron and North Fairfax Streets. At the time, Alexandria was the county seat of Fairfax County and the move consolidated government operations at that strategic corner, making it the most important intersection in Northern Virginia. The court would remain in the Alexandria government center on the north side of Market Square for over two centuries, first for the County of Fairfax and later for the City of Alexandria. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05111749Map1749.jpg | “A Plan of Alexandria now Belhaven,” George Washington, 1749. Library of Congress. | ||
| 04/27 | 1850 | 300 block North Columbus Street | Federal Courthouse | Washington Monument, Robert Mills, architect | On April 27, 1850 the City of Alexandria presented a block of Virginia marble to be used in construction of the Washington Monument, begun in 1848 to the design of architect Robert Mills, who also designed Alexandria’s 1838 Federal courthouse that once stood at the northwest corner of Queen and North Columbus Streets. Construction on the monument proceeded apace until 1854, when it was stopped due to lack of funds and control of the Washington National Monument Society, and later the Civil War. Construction resumed in 1877 with the final completion in 1885. By that time, the colonnade was eliminated from the original design, and the flat top of the column was replaced by a pyramidion. The pause in construction is clearly visible by a change in stone color at the 152’ height, with Alexandria’s stone in the lower portion. At just under 555 feet, the structure surpassed the Cologne cathedral in height, and became the world’s tallest man-made structure until the Eiffel Tower was built in 1889. However, the Washington Monument remains its titles as both the tallest obelisk and tallest stone structure in the world. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04271850WashingtonMonumentSketch.jpg | Sketch of proposed plan for the Washington Monument, Robert Mills 1836. | |
| 04/27 | 1861 | Civil War, naval blockade | On April 27, 1861, just twelve days after the fall of Fort Sumter and four days after Virginia's decision to schedule a public vote on secession, President Abraham Lincoln ordered that a Naval blockade on Southern ports be extended along the coastlines of North Carolina and Virginia to prevent the Confederacy from importing weapons and other war materials from foreign governments and preventing the export of cotton and saleable goods that would provide financial resources to enrich the South's war-making machine. As seen in this 1861 political cartoon, the snakelike blockade reached right up the Potomac, past Alexandria's waterfront, with the tail of the snake curling tight at Washington, D.C. |
/uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04271861NavalBlockade.jpg | Political cartoon, 1861. (Library of Congress) | |||
| 04/28 | 1861 | Civil War, church | On April 28, 1861, soldiers attended Sunday religious services with their companies. Mount Vernon Guards attended Methodist Protestant Church, Old Dominion Rifles attended Christ Church, Warren Rifles attended Grace Church, Fairfax Calvary attended Second Presbyterian, Alexandria Artillery attended First Presbyterian, Emmett Guards and Irish Volunteers attended St. Mary’s, and Washington Home Guards attended Methodist Episcopal Church. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04281861StMarys.jpg | St. Mary's Church. Souvenir Virginia Tercentennial 1607-1907 of Historic Alexandria, Virginia, by Andrew J. Wedderburn (Alexandria, 190)7. | |||
| 04/28 | 1898 | 500-508 King Street | Lannon's Opera House | Sharps and Flats, Gilbert and Sullivan, comic opera, Patience | On April 28, 1898, the Sharps and Flats, Alexandria’s own operatic troupe, performed Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera “Patience.” Proceeds from this production benefited the Alexandria kindergarten. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/04281898Patience.jpg | 1881 program from the Savoy Theatre, London. Courtesy, Victoria and Albert Museum. | |
| 05/02 | 1856 | Prince and St. Asaph Streets | U.S. Customs House and Post Office | Ammi B. Young, architect, Civil War, military bakery, Old Customs House, Union Street | On May 2, 1856, the future site of the U.S. Customs House and Post Office was acquired at the southwest corner of Prince and St. Asaph streets. Just a few years later the old Customs House on the corner of Union and King streets would be retrofitted into a military bakery supplying loaves of bread to U.S. Army soldiers camped in Alexandria at the start of the Civil War. Designed by architect Ammi B. Young, the granite building opened in 1858 and was expanded in 1904. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05021856CustomHouse1919.jpg | U.S. Customs House and Post Office, Alexandria. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 05/03 | 1910 | Wythe Street at Saint Asaph Street | Portner's Brewery | Strike | On May 3, 1910, a strike at the Portner Brewery lasted less than a day when company officials gave in to worker demands for a shorter workday and an increase in pay. But the new contract reduced the number of glasses of free beer employees could have each day. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05031910Portners.jpg | Portner's Brewery. Courtesy, The Lyceum: Alexandria's History Museum. | |
| 05/04 | 1869 | 121 North Fairfax Street | Mansion House Hotel, Carlyle House | Robert E. Lee | On May 4, 1869 Gen. Robert E. Lee, former commander of the Confederate forces from 1861 to 1865, was welcomed back to Alexandria by friends and well-wishers at the Mansion House Hotel on North Fairfax Street. After the Civil War, Lee rejected the calls for a sustained insurgency against Northern forces, and promoted the reunification of the country as one. He accepted a post as President of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia (now Washington and Lee University) where he used his pulpit to espouse unification. He encouraged Northern men to attend the school, where they were welcomed as “gentlemen.” As the years went by, his popularity in the North grew, and President Ulysses S. Grant even invited him to the White House in 1869, a visit that culminated in a rare sojourn to his former hometown. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05041869RELee1867.jpg | Robert E. Lee, photograph by Matthew Brady. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 05/06 | 1851 | 300 block Wilkes Street | Wilkes Street Tunnel | Orange & Alexandria Railroad, train, The Pioneer, Wilkes Street Tunnel, Civil War | On May 6, 1851 the first Orange and Alexandria (O & A) Railroad engine moved through Alexandria’s newly constructed Wilkes Street tunnel, running between Royal Street and the Potomac waterfront corridor. The Orange and Alexandria Railroad was chartered by the Virginia General Assembly in 1848, to run between Alexandria to Gordonsville, Virginia, and connected with several other railroads at Manassas Junction, allowing travel in virtually every direction through the state. During the 1850’s the railroad was a force for great commerce, shipping agricultural produce and goods through the state, and from Virginia to other markets, faster and less expensive than ever before. By 1861 however, as a result of its strategic location and multiple connections, the O & A became a major prize of both Union and Confederate forces who continually fought over its control during the Civil War. As the sole rail link between Washington, D.C. and Richmond, control of the O & A was critical to each side’s pursuit of victory in the four-year conflict. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05061851WilkesStTunnel.jpg | The Wilkes Street Tunnel, 1860s. Courtesy, National Archives & Records Administration. | |
| 05/07 | 1789 | George Washington, James Madison, inaugural ball | On May 7, 1789, President George Washington attended a ball in his honor in New York City, just one week after being sworn-in as the nation’s first chief executive on the balcony of that city’s Federal Hall. Although not officially called an Inaugural Ball, the event served as a model for the tradition that actually began a decade later after the election of James Madison. Washington attended the event without his wife, Martha, who was attending to last-minute arrangements at Mount Vernon before the trip to New York to join her husband. But Washington graced the dance floor with prominent ladies of New York society, prompting Mrs. Alexander Hamilton to comment on his grace and dignity while performing the minuet. Alexandrians were thrilled at the news from New York in welcoming their native son. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05071789NYCFederalHall.jpg | Federal Hall, after Amos Doolittle, 1899. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |||
| 05/07 | 1991 | Patsy Ticer, Mayor of Alexandria, Virginia State Senate | On May 7, 1991, Patricia S. “Patsy” Ticer became the first woman to be elected Mayor of Alexandria. She had served as mayor since January of that year, filling a vacancy, and she continued to hold that office until 1996 when she began serving in the Virginia State Senate. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05071991PatsyTicer.jpg | Patsy Ticer, former Mayor of Alexandria. | |||
| 05/09 | 1809 | 134 North Royal Street | Gadsby's Tavern | James Madison, president, Caton's Hotel | On May 9, 1809, President James Madison, just two months after his inaugural ceremonies, attended a social event at Caton’s Hotel (Gadsby’s Tavern) in Alexandria. This first year of Madison’s presidency was a prosperous time for America, and for Alexandria as well. At the time of his inauguration, the new nation had a financial surplus of $9,500,000, and in Alexandria new highways were constructed to connect with northward to Washington, and southward across Hunting Creek towards Richmond, which eventually became part of US Route 1. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05091809MadisonOath.jpg | James Madison, President of the United States. David Edwin, engraver. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 05/09 | 1946 | 614 Oronoco Street | Lee-Fendall House | John L. Lewis, United Mine Workers, strike | On May 9, 1946, Alexandria resident John L. Lewis, President of the United Mine Workers, called a nationwide strike of soft coal mine workers nationwide, seeking increased wages, a new welfare fund, and improvements in sanitary and safety conditions at American mines. The strike was successful, and was settled within three weeks as the nation’s coal supply dwindled to record lows, causing damage to the nation’s economy. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05091946JohnLewisCartoon.jpg | "Quite a Successful Strike." Herbert Block, Library of Congress. | |
| 05/11 | 1749 | Virginia Assembly, Governor William Gooch, Philip Alexander, John Alexander, George Washington, auction of lots | On May 11, 1749, colonial Governor William Gooch designated sixty acres of land adjacent to a small bay along the Potomac River in Northern Virginia as the site for a new settlement to be called Alexandria. Several theories support the naming for the new settlement; • that it was named for Philip and John Alexander who formerly owned the land; or • that the name was selected after Alexandria, Egypt a center of knowledge in the early civilized world; or • that the name was taken from the tiny town of Alexandria, Scotland, known to the Scottish founders that proposed the site; or • all of the above. An auction of 84 half-acre lots was scheduled for July 14 that same year, with a deadline of two years for successful lot purchasers to erect a structure on the property. Two lots were set aside at the center of the new community for a market place and town hall/courthouse. A seventeen-year-old assistant surveyor, George Washington prepared a map of the new town, including the names of the gridded streets, most of which are still used today. In the 17th century, plantations could be found along the Potomac River in Northern Virginia. By 1732, Hugh West had established a tobacco warehouse on high bluffs overlooking a small but deep bay, at what is today the foot of Oronoco Street in Alexandria. The Tobacco Inspection Act of 1730, one of the most successful laws promoted by colonial Governor William Gooch designated West's warehouse as the official inspection point for this area. The creation of such stations in the colony reduced fraud and affirmed the high quality of Virginia tobacco, thus allowing it to become a premium product for European trade. Hugh West oversaw the warehouse along with a ferry and tavern, while Philip and John Alexander farmed much of the surrounding land. To facilitate shipping, Scottish and English merchants petitioned the Virginia General Assembly in the fall of 1748 to establish a town at West's Hunting Creek Warehouse. After some debate that considered a competing location along Cameron Run, on May 11, 1749, Sir William Gooch, Colonial Governor of Virginia designated 60 acres of land surrounding West’s tobacco station for the founding of Alexandria. John West, Fairfax County surveyor, assisted by 17-year-old George Washington, laid out 60 acres for creation of the new town and lots were auctioned off in July 1749. |
/uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05111749Map1749.jpg | “A Plan of Alexandria now Belhaven,” George Washington, 1749. Library of Congress. | |||
| 05/12 | 1909 | North Union Street and Cameron Street | Fire, Smoot Lumber, planing mill | On May 12, 1909, a large fire broke out at Smoot Lumber at Union and Cameron streets. Originating at the planing mill near Lee Street, the fire caused an estimated $500,000 in damage. Firefighters drafted water from the Potomac River to help put out the blaze. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05121909SmootFire.jpg | Smoot-Fields fire, 1909. | ||
| 05/13 | 1904 | Prince Street at South Washington Street | Appomattox statue | Caspar Buberi, John Elder, Confederate statue, Civil War | On May 13, 1904, in the center of the intersection of Prince and South Washington Streets, a decorative iron fence, cast iron urns and landscaping was installed around the statue Appomattox, the location where upwards of 800 Alexandria troops gathered in the early morning hours of May 24, 1861 as Union troops began their Civil War occupation of Alexandria. In May 1889, the statue sculpted by Caspar Buberl, based on a soldier in John Elder’s battlefield painting of the same name, was installed at the site. The statue and monument originally stood on roads of dirt and cobblestone, which were improved in 1897 with asphalt. In 1901, the land around the monument was enhanced with grass, floral beds, and granite curbing in a quatrefoil design. Four gas lamps lighted the plot, which measured 60 by 40 feet. The fencing, installed in 1904, was later damaged when a bicyclist crashed into it. As automobile traffic increased, the park-like grounds around the statue were reduced and in 1923, the land was rounded into a circle, with a diameter of approximately 20 feet. In the early 1930s, construction of the George Washington Parkway, which incorporated the full length of Washington Street, had the greatest impact. Landscaping was eliminated, leaving a small circle of grass and a simple curb around the monument base. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05131903Appomattox.jpg | Washington Street, Confederate Memorial. Early 20th century postcard. | |
| 05/14 | 1859 | van Amburgh & Company's Grand Zoological and Equestrian Company, Zoo, menagerie show, circus | On May 14, 1859, van Amburgh & Company’s Grand Zoological & Equestrian Company performed two shows in Alexandria. Founded by Isaac van Amburgh, who was the first American animal trainer to develop wild animals acts for entertainment, the former cage cleaner at the Zoological Society of New York had developed one of the most successful 19th century traveling menagerie shows. Fearless, cunning, and merciless in his treatment of animals, van Amburgh’s mobile exposition featured trained elephants, tigers, lions, leopards, horses, trick dogs, riding monkeys and educated ponies within his repertoire. Nicknamed “The Lion King” van Amburgh was well-known for placing his bloodied arms or entire head within the mouths of growling lions, then having the animal lick his boots at the end of the act. His performance so impressed Queen Victoria and Prince Albert when it was presented to them in London in 1844, that Her Excellency commissioned Sir Edwin Henry Landseer to paint a portrait of van Amburgh and his animals to be exhibited at the Royal Academy. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05141859LandseerAmburgh.jpg | Isaac van Amburgh with his Animals, by Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, 1839. Royal Collection, Windsor Castle. | |||
| 05/16 | 1799 | 400 block Cameron Street | Thomas West's Theatre | "The Highland Reel" | On May 16, 1799, the musical play The Highland Reel was performed at Thomas West’s Theatre located in what is now the 400 block of Cameron Street. This British comical opera was well suited for presentation to early Alexandrians, as the antics of a troop of humorous but rustic characters, set in the rural Scottish countryside, corresponded quite accurately with the young settlement on the banks of the Potomac. Virginia audiences were particularly appreciative of the rural comedy, set within a hierarchy of strict social order, which fit so well with the Jeffersonian ideal of the triumph of civilization over the wilderness. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05161799HighlandReel.jpg | Engraving of Miss Foote as Moggy McGilpin, engraved by Woolnoth, 1828. Harry Beard Collection, V&A. | |
| 05/17 | 1860 | North Fairfax Street at Princess Street | AL&H Station | Train, Alexandria, Loundon and Hampshire Railroad, Civil War, AL&H, Quartermaster | On May 17, 1860, the first passenger in the Alexandria, Loudoun and Hampshire Railroad traveled from Alexandria to Leesburg. A year later, when the Civil War started, Union troops seized the AL&H rails, equipment and buildings, and converted the station at Princess and Fairfax into offices for the Quartermaster Department. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05171860ALandH.jpg | Alexandria, Loudon and Hampshire Railroad station. Courtesy, National Archives. | |
| 05/20 | 1809 | Long Bridge | Bridge, transportation | On May 20, 1809 the “Long Bridge”, built just north of Alexandria opened, connecting Virginia with the new capital city of Washington, D.C. across the Potomac River. During this time, Alexandria’s 18th century isolation and dependence on waterways for regional travel was being reduced as new highways were extended from Alexandria’s dead end street grid southward from Henry Street across Great Hunting Creek to Richmond, and northward from North Washington Street to Washington, D.C. along what is now Powhatan Street. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05201809LongBridge.jpg | The Long Bridge. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | ||
| 05/21 | 1947 | 601 First Street | Virginia Theatre | Movie Theatre, "Carnival in Costa Rica" | On May 21, 1947, the Virginia Theatre located at 601 First Street was dedicated with a special ceremony. The program included official remarks, playing of the National Anthem, and the feature film “Carnival in Costa Rica.” With 1,200 seats, it was the largest theater in Alexandria at the time. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05211947CarinvalinCostaRica.jpg | Movie poster, Carnival in Costa Rica, 1947. | |
| 05/22 | 1802 | Martha Washington | On May 22, 1802, Martha Dandridge Custis Washington, wife of the nation's first president, died of a severe fever at age 70, in the small, third-floor bed-chamber at Mount Vernon that she had moved to after her husband’s death in 1799. In the extended period of her bereavement, her health declined steadily, and a visitor to Mount Vernon in 1801 remarked, “She speaks of death as a pleasant journey.” Although technically America’s first “First Lady” that term was not in presidential jargon at the time George Washington served as Commander in Chief, and she was instead referred to simply as “Lady Washington.” A year after Washington died, his widow freed all slaves previously under his ownership and closed up their former bedroom on the second floor of the expansive residence, moving to a small room on the third floor. She was interred beside the “Father of Our County” on the grounds of the estate. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05221802MarthaWashington.jpg | Martha Washington, Currier and Ives print. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |||
| 05/22 | 1947 | 601 First Street | Virginia Theatre | Movie theatre, "Carnival in Costa Rica", Reed Theatre, Vernon Theatre, John and Drew Eberson. | On May 22, 1947, Alexandria’s largest movie theatre, the Virginia, was dedicated at 601 First Street, with the feature presentation “Carnival in Costa Rica” starring Dick Haymes, as the opening night billing. The new theatre added 1,200 seats to the city’s theatre inventory, far surpassing its closest competitors, the Reed Theatre at 1,100 and the Vernon at 980 seats respectively, and increasing capacity at the city’s nine theatres to 9,000 seats. Designed by architects John and Drew Eberson, the theatre reportedly had the largest stage and screen in the Washington metropolitan area. The General Electric Co. featured the new and innovative lighting installed in the theatre as part of its nationwide advertising in 1949. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05211947CarinvalinCostaRica.jpg | Virginia Theatre Interior, GE Advertisement, Boxoffice Magazine 06/04/1949. | |
| 05/23 | 1861 | Secession, Civil War | On May 23, 1861, beginning perhaps the most dramatic twenty-four hour period in Alexandria’s history, citizens ratified Virginia’s Ordinance of Secession by a vote of 958 to 48. Despite Alexandria’s proximity to the capital of the United States just across the Potomac River, the referendum confirmed that city residents supported the effort to break away from the United States and maintain their allegiance to Virginia, rather than become the conduit of attack against their home soil and states further south. After the votes were counted, a night long celebration took place and when it ended an unusual stillness settled over the town. Just before dawn the next morning, Union troops invaded the city by land and river, bringing the American Civil War to the front doors of the city virtually overnight. |
/uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05231861VirginiaOrdinanceSecession.jpg | Virginia's Ordinance of Secession. Courtesy, Library of Virginia. | |||
| 05/24 | 1861 | King Street | Marshall House Hotel | Civil War, secession, Elmer Ellsworth, New York Fire Zouaves, James Jackson | On May 24, 1861, federal troops took over Alexandria, the day that Virginia’s secession from the Union went into effect. Colonel Elmer Ellsworth of the New York Fire Zouaves and Alexandria innkeeper James Jackson, an ardent secessionist, were both killed in an incident at the Marshall House hotel on King Street that made them martyred heroes in the North and South. That same day, Alexandria military units with hundreds of men loyal to the South met at the intersection of Prince and Washington streets and then left Alexandria to fight with the Confederacy. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05241861MarshallHouse.jpg | Marshall House Hotel. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 05/24 | 1889 | Appomattox statue, R.E. Lee Camp of Confederate Veterans | On May 24, 1889, the statue Appomattox, commissioned by the R.E. Lee Camp of Confederate Veterans, was dedicated. Its site at Prince and Washington streets was the location where 800 Alexandria troops mustered on May 24, 1861, the day Virginia’s secession took effect. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05241889AppomattoxStatue.jpg | Statue of Appomattox. | |||
| 05/26 | 1830 | Canal Center Plaza | Alexandria Canal | Alexandria Canal Company | On May 26, 1830, the United States Congress granted a Charter to the Alexandria Canal Company. The canal was proposed earlier that year by a group of Alexandria businessmen to link the communities of Georgetown and Alexandria, which at the time were both within the boundaries of the District of Columbia. When completed, the Alexandria Canal crossed the Potomac River in an aqueduct bridge over between Georgetown and Rosslyn, then ran on level ground seven miles to Alexandria, terminating in a large basin. The intent was to enhance capacity of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, discontinuing the unloading of cargo boats heading southward at Georgetown, and allowing them to pass directly to Alexandria instead. Construction on the seven-mile canal was begun in 1833 and continued over the next decade, lowering boats 38 feet across its course over an aqueduct and through a series of four locks. The canal was subsequently abandoned in 1886. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05261830Canal.jpg | Alexandria Canal Lift Lock and Pool No. 1, ca. 1861-1865. Courtesy, National Archives. | |
| 05/30 | 1918 | Jones Point | Virginia Shipbuilding | President Woodrow Wilson, ship Gunston Hall, ship Betsy Bell, Virginia Ship Building Corporation | On May 30, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson drove the first rivet into the keel of the first ship being constructed at the Virginia Shipbuilding Corporation yard at Jones Point. That ship, the Gunston Hall, was launched the following February with a second ship, the Betsy Bell. This event took place at almost the very site where decades later, the bridge spanning the Potomac River, connecting Maryland with Alexandria, would be named for President Wilson. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05301918WoodrowWilson.jpg | Woodrow Wilson, 1912. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 05/30 | 1964 | 4301 West Braddock Road | Fort Ward | Historic Preservation, Civil War, Defenses of Washington, Union fort | On May 30, 1964, the reconstructed Northwest Bastion of Fort Ward was dedicated at Fort Ward Park along West Braddock Road. Now considered the best remaining feature associated with the “Defenses of Washington,” which protected the nation’s capital during the Civil War, Fort Ward was one of the City’s earliest historic preservation projects and was completed in time for the American Civil War Centennial commemoration. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10031953NWBastionFortWard.jpg | Excavation of the Northwest Bastion of Fort Ward, 1961. Office of Historic Alexandria. | |
| 05/30 | 1964 | 4301 West Braddock Road | Fort Ward | Historic preservation, Civil War fort, James Harmon Ward, Dr. Francis A. Lord, Defenses of Washington, Union fort | On May 30, 1964, Fort Ward Park on West Braddock Road was dedicated, highlighting the city’s first major historic restoration and preservation project, the reconstruction of the Northwest Bastion of the Civil War fort, named for James Harmon Ward, the first U.S. naval officer to die in the Civil War. Originally intended as a visitors' center to the historic site, Fort Ward Museum began receiving donations of Civil War objects from the time it opened. The long-term loan of a nationally recognized private collection owned by Civil War collector and author Dr. Francis A. Lord transformed the visitors' center into a museum. The core of the permanent collection was acquired in 1972 when the City of Alexandria purchased nearly 600 objects from the Lord collection. Today, the Museum collection features more than 4,000 objects from the Civil War period, including a broad range of military arms and equipment that interprets army life at Fort Ward, and objects that highlight the local history of Civil War Alexandria and the Defenses of Washington. Fort Ward is the best preserved of the extensive network of Union forts and batteries known as the Civil War Defenses of Washington. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10031953NWBastionFortWard.jpg | Excavation of the Northwest Bastion of Fort Ward, 1961. Office of Historic Alexandria. | |
| 06/03 | 1897 | The Strand | Pioneer Mill | American Steam Power Company, flour mill, fire, Herbert Bryant, Old Dominion Boat Club | On June 3, 1897, just after midnight, a large fire broke out at Herbert Bryant’s fertilizer mill on the Strand. It spread quickly, destroying Bryant’s warehouse, Pioneer Mills and the Old Dominion Boat Club, and numerous other buildings and wharves along The Strand from Duke to Prince Streets. Considered virtually fireproof at the time of its completion in March 1854, Pioneer Mills was a massive structure was built of brick with a slate roof, and stood over six stories high, with the roof elevated 77 feet above the first floor. Built for the American Steam Power Company, the mill was capable of producing eight hundred barrels of flour per day, processed by grinding over four thousand bushels of wheat through 12 sets of “run-of-burr” millstones. Damage to the building was so extensive it was completely destroyed. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/06031897ViewFromPioneerMill.jpg | View of the Strand c. 1865. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 06/04 | 1870 | 107 South Alfred Street | Friendship Firehouse | Fire company | On June 4, 1870, the Friendship Firehouse on South Alfred Street (built 1855) was report to be in structurally unsound condition, requiring the removal of all fire equipment stored in the building. Although the building had only been constructed fifteen years earlier, the massive steeple that then topped the building was often battered by high winds, twisting the small structure below and allowing rain water to penetrate the roof and framing. This issue, coupled with deferred maintenance during the Civil War period, required that the tall steeple be replaced by a lower cupola instead. Although the new cupola was an improvement, twisting and weather infiltration continued to plague the building for decades, and was only rectified when the cupola was restored and strengthened by the City of Alexandria in 2010. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/06041870FFHRepairs.jpg | Repairs to the Friendship Firehouse cupola, 2010. | |
| 06/05 | 1922 | 101 Calahan Drive | George Washington Masonic National Monument | Shuter's Hill, Louis A. Watres, Charles H. Callahan, Washington Lodge No. 22 | On June 5, 1922, groundbreaking for the George Washington Masonic Memorial at Shuter’s Hill took place. Memorial association president Louis A. Watres and Charles H. Callahan, Past Master of Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22 turned the first dirt. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/06051922GroundbreakingMemorial.jpg | Groundbreaking ceremony, 1922. Courtesy, George Washington Masonic National Memorial. | |
| 06/06 | 1950 | 301 King Street | City Hall | Police Department | On June 6, 1950, a report was issued citing the need for new City Police Department facility, then located on the North Fairfax Street side of City Hall. In the ten year period since 1940, the City’s population had almost doubled, from 33,500 to 62,000 persons, and the police force grew correspondingly as well, from 39 to 85 men. With Federal government employment increasing rapidly in the post-war period, and another projected jump in population expected, the cramped quarters at City Hall no longer could handle the ever-expanding case load that then exceeded 12,000 charges per year. The new police facility on N. Pitt Street opened nine years later at a cost of $350,000. The new colonial-style building reflected the then popular choice for Alexandria municipal architecture, echoing design elements built earlier at the Alexandria Health Dept. on N. St. Asaph Street and the Trash/Incinerator building at the end of S. Payne. However, the new Police headquarters was state-of-the-art for its time, and featured modern holding cells, special training and interview rooms, as well as a film processing darkroom, which were largely unavailable at the old City Hall location. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/06061950Police1949.JPG | Alexandria Police Department, 1949. | |
| 06/10 | 1919 | World War I, parade, Alexandria Light Infantry | On June 10, 1919, Alexandria held a homecoming parade for local men who had served in the Great War. Several hundred men from Alexandria served in the war and nearly a hundred marched in the parade which at King and Patrick streets and ended at Washington and Prince streets. The band from Fort Myer and former members of the Alexandria Light Infantry were among those who participated in the procession. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/06101919WWIParade.jpg | Homecoming parade for World War I soldiers, June 10, 1919. Courtesy, Alexandria Library Special Collections. | |||
| 06/11 | 1904 | Thomas Hayden, explosion | On June 11, 1904, the two youngest children of Thomas Hayden found a shell filled with dynamite in a junk pile near their home on the south side of Duke Street, between Lee and Union. Not knowing what the shell contained, and ignorant of the danger, the children dragged the large shell back to the yard of their home and began to beat it with a hammer in hopes of separating the lead pieces. Without warning the shell suddenly exploded, sending fragments in every direction, blasting through nearby fences and sheds, and sending them skyward to land several blocks away. Amazingly, the Hayden children, both within close proximity to the lethal compound, escaped injury, and no other residents were hurt in the incident. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/06111904DynamiteShell.JPG | Dynamite shell, early 20th century. | |||
| 06/13 | 1902 | Mary Custis Lee, segregation, street car, African American, Jim Crow laws | On June 13, 1902, Mary Custis Lee, daughter of Robert E. Lee, was arrested in Alexandria after she refused move to a “whites only” section of an electric street car. The conductor asked her to move from the segregated seating for African Americans and when she didn’t, was arrested for violating the Jim Crow laws. She was taken to the police station and released after posting a $5 bond, but she never returned for her court appearance and her reason for refusing to move remains unknown. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/06131902MaryCustisLee.jpg | Mary Custis Lee. | |||
| 06/13 | 1933 | Repeal of prohibition, Volstead Act | On June 13, 1933, Alexandria businessmen presented a petition to the Alexandria City Council urging the repeal of a prohibition on the sale of beer in the city. Although by then the United States was in the thirteenth year of the social experiment known as Prohibition, just three months earlier, President Franklin Roosevelt had approved an amendment to the Volstead Act that authorized the sale of beer and light wines in the nation. The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting the sale of alcohol was adopted with good intentions, but the proposed benefits of Prohibition were quickly dwarfed by a massive rise in public lawlessness and organized crime, often replacing legitimate businesses with those operated by violent mobsters. The amendment was repealed entirely just six months after the Alexandria protest. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/06291933ProhibitionEnforcement.jpg | Prohibition enforcement. | |||
| 06/14 | 1906 | Four Mile Run area | Luna Park | Lincoln J. Beachey, aviator, airship | On the morning of June 14, 1906, 18 year-old aviator Lincoln J. Beachey, nicknamed “The Man Who Owns the Sky,” ascended from Luna Park at the north end of the city and sailed over Alexandria in an airship built by Ray Knabenshue. Similar to the airship seen here, flown by Knabenshue a year earlier at the St. Louis World’s Fair, the airship flight startled Senators and Congressmen at the U.S. Capitol, who left committee meetings and crowded balconies and terraces to get a view of the aerial flight over Washington. After completing two complete trips around the Washington Monument, at a height of about 400 feet, Beachey returned the airship to Alexandria, completing the one-hour flight. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/06141906KnabenshueAirshipLOC.jpg | Knabenshue airship. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 06/15 | 1775 | Second Continental Congress, Continental Army, George Washington | On June 15, 1775, one day after the Second Continental Congress authorized a Continental Army, Alexandria’s favorite son George Washington, was appointed its Commander in Chief by a unanimous vote of the Congress. Washington accepted the post, and served throughout the war without compensation. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/06151775GeorgeWashington.jpeg | George Washington, portrait by Rembrandt Peale, ca. 1850. Original at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum. | |||
| 06/16 | 1809 | Roads, turnpike, Powhatan Street | On June 16, 1809, the Virginia General Assembly was petitioned to construct a new turnpike linking Alexandria with Fredericksburg about 50 miles away. Construction began soon after on a causeway across the Great Hunting Creek and a road through the rural wilderness of eastern Fairfax County, passing the Huntley meadows, Mount Vernon, Woodlawn and the town of Woodbridge, eventually becoming part of U.S. Route 1 stretching from Fort Kent, Maine to Key West, Florida. That same year, a new turnpike was built north of Alexandria (now Powhatan Street) extending from the northern dead-end of Washington Street to connect with the Long Bridge across the Potomac River. This new turnpike would finally provide a direct road connection between Alexandria and Washington Counties, the original two counties that made up the District of Columbia. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02251801DistrictOfColumbiaMap.jpg | Map showing the District of Columbia. Library of Congress. | |||
| 06/17 | 1899 | 701 King Street | Timberman's Drug Store | John Janney, pharmacy | On June, 17, 1899, druggist John Janney closed the pharmacy he had operated at the northwest corner of King and Washington Streets, and left Alexandria to open a new drugstore in Newport News. It was the first time in over 50 years that Alexandrians could remember the store being closed and vacant. The store subsequently was acquired by Ernest Allen, and in 1906 became Timbermann’s Drug Store, which operated at the prominent corner until moving one building north in 1950. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/06171899TimbermanDrugStore.jpg | Timberman's Drug Store was located at the northwest corner King and Washington streets from 1906 to 1950. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 06/18 | 1812 | President James Madison, War of 1812, Secretary of War John Armstrong | On June 18, 1812, President James Madison declared war on England, in response to years of British harassment of American trading ships on the Atlantic, impressment of American seamen into British service, armed support of Native Americans and a possible Indian Confederacy in the Midwest, and aspirations to expand American territory into Canada. Thus began the War of 1812, considered by some to be America's "Second War of Independence." Although Alexandrians were quick to recognize the threat to their city and the nearby national capital, Secretary of War John Armstrong largely dismissed their concerns and financial offers to reinforce security in the Potomac River region. Two years later, Alexandrians found themselves in the crosshairs of the escalating conflict, and their premonition of defeat by a Naval force proved all too accurate. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/06181812War1812.jpg | We Owe Allegiance to No Crown. John Archibald Woodside (1781–1852), Oil on canvas, c. 1814. | |||
| 06/19 | 1943 | 115 N. Washington St. | John Gordon home | USO, World War II | On June 19, 1943, the United Service Organization (USO) opened a center for World War servicemen in the rear section of 115 N. Washington Street, seen in the background of this image, in what was once the 18th century home built for John Gordon at the corner of King Street. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/06191943USO.jpg | USO building, built for John Gordon. | |
| 06/20 | 1863 | Restored Government of Virginia; Francis Harrison Pierpont, abolition of slavery, West Virginia | One June 20, 1863, Alexandria became the capital of the Restored Government of Virginia with Francis Harrison Pierpont serving as governor. Under Pierpont, a new Virginia constitution was issued in 1864 recognizing the abolition of slavery and creation of West Virginia. At the start of the Civil War, counties in northwestern Virginia opposed secession. These counties had advocated for separate statehood long before the war started, but the U.S. Constitution would forbid states from being created with the borders of existing states without approval of that state’s legislature. However, once the war began, the federal government recognized the City of Wheeling as the capital of the Restored Government, and within two years the new State of West Virginia was approved. At that time the Restored Government of Virginia moved from the new state to a new capital at Alexandria. When the war ended in 1865, the Virginia state capital moved again to Richmond, which had acted as the capital of the Confederacy during the war years. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/06201863FrancisPierpont.jpg | Francis Pierpont. Courtesy, West Virginia Division of Culture and History. | |||
| 06/21 | 1860 | 107 South Alfred Street | Friendship Firehouse | Steeple, renovation, fire company | Although the Friendship Firehouse building was on South Alfred Street was built in 1855, almost immediately issues with its over-sized steeple, seen in the Civil War era view, began causing structural problems with the structure. The Friendship minute book entry, dated June 21, 1860, noted, “Repairs to the Friendship Fire Engine House, ordered necessary by the damage done to building by storm of 26th have nearly been completed. The steeple has been plumbed and again covered with tin.” But nearly a decade later, on June 4, 1870, Friendship Fire House was again reported in dangerous condition and all fire apparatus had to be removed. Soon after, the tall steeple was dismantled and replaced by the smaller-sized cupola that stands today. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/06211860FriendshipSteeple.JPG | The steeple is seen in this detail from a Civil War era photograph. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 06/21 | 1898 | Street fires, litter | On June 21, 1898, the City of Alexandria outlawed the unsafe practice of street fires, organized by local merchants in response to the ever-increasing presence of litter that collected on sidewalks and in front of storefronts. In the days before municipal trash collection, litter had grown from an annoyance to a public health and safety menace, as gutter-side street fires became common along primary commercial streets of the city. As a result, for the first time the city developed a series of wood trash receptacles, painted with artistic advertisements, and urged local residents to deposit litter within the new containers, rather than simply discarding it at will. | |||||
| 06/22 | 1893 | James F. Webster, bicycles, Alexandria Bicycle Club | On June 22, 1893, Alexandria police chief James F. Webster was concerned that bicycles had become such a popular mode of transportation that it was necessary to regulate those who operated them. He was especially concerned about the safety threat they posed at night. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/06221893BikeClub.jpg | Alexandria Bicycle Club, c. 1905. Alexandria Library Special Collections. | |||
| 06/22 | 1937 | Monroe Avenue | Simpson Field | Simpson Stadium, almshouse, ballpark | On June 22, 1937, the Alexandria City Council appropriated $2,500 to construct a baseball field at the old Almshouse property at Monroe Street and U.S. Route 1. The 18th century Almshouse, built to house indigent Alexandrians, had been auctioned off by the city several years earlier for a boarding house, but returned to city ownership when the new owner’s finances reversed during the Great Depression. Unable to find a use or market for the property, city fathers decided to construct a ball field for recreational use adjacent to the building, which was then used for the storage of baseball equipment. Some forty years later the ballfield was named in honor of developer Eugene Simpson who was a great supporter of Alexandria youth athletic programs. The new ball field proved immensely popular, and today is known as Simpson Field. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/06221937AlmshouseAerial.jpg | The Almshouse, seen in a detail from an aerial photograph. Courtesy, Alexandria Library Special Collections. | |
| 06/23 | 1897 | 3737 Seminary Road | Virginia Theological Seminary | Commencement, school, Episcopal | On June 23, 1897, the Virginia Theological Seminary began a three-day commencement ceremony honoring the graduating class of 1897. On the first day of the event, the Rev. Dr. O.H. Tiffany of New York, a leading Episcopal cleric of the day, preached the Annual Missionary Sermon to a large audience. The following morning the graduates recited their final essays for several hours before a midday collation. Diplomas were handed out later that afternoon by Bishop Francis Whittle, and the names of students in the lower classes who were to move up were read aloud. Finally. on the last day, ordination services were held. Guests attending the ceremonies arrived in Alexandria primarily by train, including the electric train that stopped at King and Washington Streets, and were transported to the Seminary by waiting carriages. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/06231897AspinwallHall.jpg | Aspinwall Hall, Virginia Theological Seminary. | |
| 06/24 | 1903 | Prince Street and Saint Asaph Street | Old Custom House | William P. Lipscomb & Company, Custom House, Post Office | On June 24, 1903, it was announced that Washington, D.C., contractor William P. Lipscomb & Company had been awarded a U.S. Treasury Department contract to expand the custom house and post office building located at South St. Asaph and Prince streets. The contract for $52,970 required work to be completed by July 1, 1904. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/06241903CustomHouse.jpg | U.S. Post Office and Custom House, July 1, 1900. Courtesy, National Archives. | |
| 06/29 | 1929 | George Washington Memorial Parkway | George Washington Memorial Parkway | Roads, M.B. Harlow, George Washington Memorial Parkway. | On June, 29, 1929, the U.S. government announced plans to construct the George Washington Memorial Parkway from the nation’s capital, southward to Mount Vernon. First proposed by Alexandria’s M. B. Harlow about 1907, the roadway was described as “the Appian Way and Westminster Abbey combined”, an apparent reference to America’s first roadway built specifically for motorized vehicles, the Long Island Motor Parkway, which was often referred to as a modern Appian Way. Twenty years later, the new “parkway” plan would be based on the design aesthetic also pioneered on Long Island by master builder Robert Moses, the New York State Parks Commissioner, which linked state parks on Long Island to the City of New York through a series of scenic, park-like highway corridors. The new parkway in Virginia would be opened just in time for Washington’s 200th birthday celebration in 1932. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/06291929GWMParkwayConstruction.jpg | Construction of the George Washington Memorial Parkway. | |
| 06/29 | 1933 | Prohibition, repeal | On June 29, 1933, Alexandria City Council repealed the City’s Prohibition laws. As the country moved to abolish Prohibition and the City saw fine revenue decrease, the City repealed its local laws against alcohol, though offenders could still be prosecuted under State law. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/06291933ProhibitionEnforcement.jpg | Prohibition enforcement. | |||
| 06/30 | 1852 | 107 South Alfred Street | Friendship Firehouse | Fire, Charles Glasscock | On June 30, 1852, Fireman Charles Glasscock was killed when he was struck by a fire engine. He and other members of the Friendship Company were responding to a fire alarm and “running the engine” when he was accidentally run over. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/06301865FriendshipFirehouse.jpg | Friendship Firehouse. | |
| 07/01 | 1958 | 110 Calahan Drive | Union Station | Train accident, Seaboard Airline train, Chesapeake & Ohio streamliner | On July 1, 1958, more than 30 people were injured when two passenger trains collided at Union Station. A Seaboard Airline train was unloading passengers when a Chesapeake & Ohio streamliner came into the station on the same northbound tracks and rammed into the Seaboard. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/07011958UnionStation.jpg | Early postcard of Union Station. | |
| 07/07 | 1838 | 300 block North Columbus Street | Federal Courthouse | Robert Mills, architect, Federal Courthouse | On July 7, 1838, Congress appropriated funds for a new district courthouse to be built in Alexandria. Architect Robert Mills designed the courthouse, which featured a two-story Doric portico and an octagonal cupola. It stood in the 300 block of North Columbus Street until 1906. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/07071838OldCourthouse.jpg | The old Courthouse on North Columbus Street. Courtesy, Alexandria Library Special Collections. | |
| 07/07 | 1865 | Civil War, end of Union occupation, John Slough, Military District of Alexandria | In July 1865, with the American Civil War officially over, Union troops began withdrawing from Alexandria, ending their four-year occupation of the city. On July 7 the War department abolished the position of military governor, as Gov. John Slough requested to be relieved so that he could leave Virginia to assume command of a territorial governorship in Colorado. With his departure, the Military District of Alexandria was dismantled, and city management returned to civilian control. For weeks afterward, former military supplies, equipment, horses and livestock were sold or auctioned to locals for pennies on the dollar. Although the city witnessed no major battles during the Civil War, its strategic location made it a transportation, warehouse, medical and troop center throughout the war. and it was the longest occupied city in the nation. When the war over, the city was in tatters, its once prosperous economy in ruins, and population vastly diminished from pre-war levels. Former residents who had fled the thriving city at the start of the war, returned to find their homes and property destroyed or in tatters. But despite harsh obstacles and a new social order, the citizens of Alexandria were not defeated. What emerged was an unprecedented effort between blacks and whites to work cooperatively in the reconstruction of a new, greater Alexandria, providing new opportunities for all citizens. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/07071865GenSloughHQ.jpg | Gen. Slough's headquarters, St. Asaph Street, Alexandria, Va. Post office and veteran's reserve headquarters in middle distance Andrew J. Russel. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |||
| 07/07 | 1915 | Cameron and West Streets | Alexandria High School, Masonic Lodge | On July 7, 1915, members of the Alexandria-Washington Masonic Lodge No. 22 set the cornerstone for the new Alexandria High School at Cameron and West streets. City and school officials attended the evening ceremony and Masons used the historic trowel used to set the cornerstones of the U.S. Capitol and Washington Monument. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/07071915AlexandriaHighSchool.jpg | Alexandria High School. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | ||
| 07/07 | 1925 | King Street and Washington Street | Roads, traffic light | On July 7, 1925, the first traffic light became operational at King and Washington Streets to handle the ever increasing flow of automobile traffic through the heart of downtown Alexandria. Yet despite its width, Washington Street was still only one lane in each direction, as the four-lane George Washington Memorial Parkway had yet to be constructed at either end of the city. Angled, rather than parallel, parking was accommodated along the curbside on both sides of Washington Street. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/07071925KingStTrafficLight.jpg | Traffic light on King Street. | ||
| 07/08 | 1925 | 100 block Wythe Street | National Fruit Product Company | Fire, cider vinegar plant | On July 8, 1925, the National Fruit Product Company cider vinegar plant at North Henry and Pendleton was destroyed by fire. Several fire companies responded and city officials including the mayor assisted in putting the fire out. The intense fire attracted a large crowd of spectators and left more than a dozen firefighters in need of medical treatment. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/07081925NationalFruitFire.jpg | National Fruit Product Company fire, 1925. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 07/08 | 1946 | 134 North Royal Street | Gadsby's Tavern | Alexandria Historical Society, American Legion Post 24 | On July 8, 1946, the first public meeting of the Alexandria Historical Society was held at Gadsby’s Tavern on North Royal Street. The new organization dedicated to preserving and disseminating information on Alexandria’s heritage followed an emerging trend focusing on history and historic preservation in the city that had begun two decades earlier when Gadsby’s Tavern was acquired for preservation purposes by American Legion Post 24. Although the city’s early buildings had suffered from benign neglect during and in the decades after the Civil War, a move to highlight the city’s proud heritage, association with George Washington and the founding fathers, and preservation of historic buildings through a new Old and Historic Alexandria District designated that year provided a renewed interest in the history of Alexandria and a force for economic sustainability in the future of the city. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03141801Gadsbys.jpg | Gadsby's Tavern. Office of Historic Alexandria. | |
| 07/11 | 1949 | South Lee Street | King's Meadow Theatre | historic pageant, bicentennial, postage stamp | On July 11, 1949, the City of Alexandria continued celebrations building up to the anniversary of its establishment on July 13, two hundred years earlier, with presentation of a historical pageant “Alexandria Thy Son” at the King’s Meadow Theatre on South Lee Street. The play was only one tribute to the City during that important bicentennial year. Others included creation of a special brochure outlining the accomplishments of the place by the mid-20th century and 6 cent United States air mail stamp, featuring Carlyle House and Gadsby’s Tavern, recognizing the milestone. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/01251949Stamp.jpg | Postage stamp featuring the Carlyle House and Gadsby's Tavern, commemorating the City's bicentennial in 1949. | |
| 07/12 | 1955 | Duke Street | Drive-in movie theatre, Alexandria Amusement Co. | On July 12, 1955, the Alexandria City Council refused a request to build a drive-in movie theater in the West End. The Alexandria Amusement Co. wanted to open a drive-in south of Duke Street near Cameron Station, but area residents complained that the theater would cause traffic problems and the light and sound at night would be a nuisance. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/07121955DriveIn.jpg | Drive-in movie theater. Courtesy, Don and Susan Sanders, Drive-In Movie Memories. | ||
| 07/14 | 1965 | 301 King Street | Market Square | Board of Architectural Review, BAR, Old and Historic Alexandria District, Market Square, Urban Renewal | On July 14, 1965, the Board of Architectural Review for the Old and Historic Alexandria District approved the design for the plaza, fountain and subterranean garage at Market Square. The project, part of a much larger “urban renewal” project to revitalize six deteriorated commercial blocks in the downtown area, paved the way for the demolition of dozens of early buildings fronting King, North Royal and North Fairfax Streets, as well as structures and stalls associated with the market near City Hall. Although controversial even at that time, the authorization supported the concept of opening up Market Square as a community gathering space, rather than the maintaining the jumbled marketplace that had developed over 200 years, and had been largely hidden from surrounding streets for decades. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/07141965MarketSquare.jpg | Market Square prior to urban renewal, from the corner of King and Royal streets. | |
| 07/15 | 1870 | Alexandria Police Department | On July 15, 1870, the Alexandria Police Department was formally organized by an act of the Board of Alderman and Common Council. The act sated that each “policeman and officer shall wear a badge in the form of a star, made of block tin, not less than two and a half inches in diameter.” | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/07151870PoliceBadge.jpg | Early police badge. Collection of the Alexandria Police Department. | |||
| 07/17 | 1946 | Old and Historic District, Old Town | Historic preservation | On July 17, 1946 the City of Alexandria designated the Old and Historic Alexandria District, nicknamed at the time the “Charleston Ordinance” after the City of Charleston, South Carolina which had earlier extended the police powers of its zoning code to regulate changes to the exterior appearance of buildings within a designated area. Zoning laws in the United States were first upheld by the U. S. Supreme Court in 1916 in the famous Euclid vs. Ambler case, but that issue dealt specifically with land uses and not aesthetic appearance. Alexandria’s new historic district was the third in the United States including the “Vieux Carre” area of New Orleans. Historic District zoning codes went unchallenged for over two decades until the Supreme Court case Penn Central vs. City of New York upheld that city’s action to denied an application to build a skyscraper atop the historic Grand Central Station. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/07171946CaptainsRow1940s.jpg | Captain's Row, 100 block of Prince Street, 1940s. Office of Historic Alexandria. | ||
| 07/22 | 1907 | Four Mile Run area | Luna Park | Amusement park | On July 22, 1907, Luna Park granted free admission to Alexandria’s public school students, and between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m., the students were given free access to all concessions at the amusement park. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/07221907LunaParkPittsburg1905.jpg | The entrance to Luna Park, Pittsburg. Detroit Publishing Co. 1905. | |
| 07/23 | 1830 | Canal Center Plaza | Alexandria Canal | Alexandria Common Council, Alexandria Canal Company | On July 23, 1830, the Alexandria Common Council authorized the purchase of 500 shares of stock in the Alexandria Canal Company. When completed in 1845, the canal ran from a terminal in Georgetown, across the Potomac on an aqueduct, along the west side of the Virginia shore, over Four Mile Run on another aqueduct, into Alexandria, and descended to the Potomac by means of three lift locks which lowered barges to the river. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/07231830CanalLock.jpg | Alexandria Canal Lock. Courtesy, National Archives. | |
| 07/24 | 1946 | 201 South Washington Street | The Lyceum | Hugh McGuire, Benjamin Hallowell, Greek Revival architecture | On July 24, 1946, court approval was sought by the owners of the former residence of Dr. and Mrs. Hugh McGuire at 201 S. Washington Street to demolish the historic structure to make way for contemporary office development of the site. This action prompted a major citizen effort to preserve the structure, built in 1837 as a center for learning and knowledge known as The Lyceum. The original concept to build such a structure in Alexandria was led by local schoolmaster Benjamin Hallowell, and when finished the building included the Alexandria library, exhibits of natural history and science and a large lecture hall on the second floor. Today, the building houses The Lyceum, Alexandria’s History Museum, and is one of the finest examples of Greek Revival architecture in the city. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03021867LyceumCivilWar.jpg | The Lyceum during the Civil War. Photo by Andrew J. Russell. Courtesy, The Lyceum: Alexandria's History Museum. | |
| 07/25 | 1811 | James Madison, Dolley Madison | On July 25, 1811, President James Madison and his wife, Dolley, passed through Alexandria on their way to Montpelier, Madison’s lifelong home in Orange Virginia. The Madison’s were escorted through the city streets by units of the Alexandria militia. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/07251811Madison.JPG | Portrait of James Madison. Bureau of Printing and Engraving. | |||
| 07/25 | 1959 | King St | Shopping, marketing, retail, Joe Namath | On July, 27, 1959, the first "Alexandria Days" marketing initiative began as a cooperative effort between local merchants and City leaders to promote shopping in downtown Alexandria during long weeks of stifling summer heat. Once the vibrant retail hub of Northern Virginia, by the late 1950’s Alexandria’s downtown commerce began to see intense competition from newly built shopping centers along major highway corridors surrounding the city that offered air-conditioning, free parking and “one-stop” convenience for motorists. Alexandria Days was created to offer special sales and promotions, special event activities, a salute to the military, and even an evening parade through the downtown area that once featured Joe Namath throwing footballs to the crowd. The summer activity was replicated for several years until the City finally embarked on a major urban renewal project to revitalize the declining King Street corridor. |
/uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/07271959Retail.jpg | Hayman's Department Store window display. | ||
| 07/29 | 1952 | UFO sightings, flying saucers | On July 29, 1952, the witnesses reported UFO sightings across Northern Virginia. The Alexandria Gazette said, “Flying saucers circled the Northern Virginia area again this morning.” A week and a half earlier, an Alexandria man reported seeing “a red cigar-shaped object” over his house, which he estimated to be about the same size as a DC-7 airplane. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/07291952ufos.jpg | Alexandria Gazette, July 29, 1952, front page, headline: "Eye-witness Story of "Flying Saucers" Seen Along Alexandria-Clarendon Axis." | |||
| 07/30 | 1909 | 101 Calahan Drive | Shuter's Hill | Orville Wright, Benjamin Foulois, test flight, biplane | On July 30, 1909, Orville Wright and Benjamin Foulois, a U.S. Army lieutenant, flew a plane to Alexandria in a test flight for the military. The biplane traveled from Fort Myer to Shuter’s Hill and back. A tethered balloon flew above Shuter’s Hill so the pilot would know when to turn back toward Fort Myer. This successful demonstration flight was required for the Army’s purchase of its first military airplane. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/07301909Plane.jpg | "The Dream Fulfilled" by Keith Ferris. Courtesy, The Lyceum. | |
| 07/31 | 1934 | 1005 Mount Vernon Avenue | George Washington High School | Del Ray, school, Art Deco architecture, WPA, Alexandria High School 1400 Cameron St, George Mason High School 2500 Mount Vernon Ave | On July 31, 1934, a contract was let for the construction of George Washington High School at 1005 Mount Vernon Avenue in the city’s Del Ray neighborhood. The new school, which opened a year later, replaced the old Alexandria High School on Cameron Street and merged it with the George Mason High School, the former high school of the Town of Potomac, annexed as part of Alexandria several years earlier. The new high school was designed in the Del Ray’s prevalent Art Deco style, and was funded as part of a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. The school initially housed a student population of 1,200 with a staff of 35. At the time of its construction, critics claimed that the school was built so large that there would never be enough students to fill its cavernous halls. By 1944, the addition of three wings proved them wrong! The old George Mason High building is still standing as part of the Mount Vernon Elementary School. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/07311934GWHighSchool.jpg | George Washington High School (now the GW Middle School), 1005 Mount Vernon Avenue. | |
| 08/02 | 1898 | King Street and Fairfax Street | Rough Riders, Spanish-American War, Alexandria Police Department, streetcar | On the night of August 2, 1898, a soldier possibly associated with the “Rough Riders” passing through Alexandria that week in their service to the Spanish-American War, appeared at the Alexandria Police Department to complain that his clothes had been stolen from his body. The clothes were found several hours later, scattered in a streetcar along Royal Street. The soldier apparently had consumed too much liquid courage earlier in the evening, and entered the streetcar thinking it was his camp. He then removed his clothes to prepare for sleep, but left the car near King and Fairfax Streets where he slept on a box. When he awoke hours later, the streetcar was gone and in a stupor he wrongly assumed he had been robbed. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08021898Streetcar.jpg | Streetcar on King Street. | ||
| 08/02 | 1898 | Mount Ida Avenue at Mount Vernon Avenue | St. Asaph racetrack | Spanish-American War, U.S. Army stables, mules | On August 2, 1898, nearly 200 mules stampeded as they were transported from their corral at the St. Asaph racetrack to Washington, D.C. They were frightened by a passing freight train and it took several hours to recover them following the stampede. These were among the thousands of mules that the U.S. Army housed at the old racetrack stables during the Spanish-American War. The stampede caused considerable property damage along the Duke Street corridor. The damage stretched from the village of West End, near Diagonal Road, into downtown Alexandria, with dozens of bewildered mules aimlessly wandering city streets for hours afterward. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08021898StAsaphRacetrack.jpg | St. Asaph Racetrack, Courtesy, Alexandria Library Special Collections. | |
| 08/03 | 1950 | Duke Street | Cameron Station | Alexandria Water Company, Army Quartermaster Depot | On August 3, 1950, Alexandria residents began complaining about a bad taste in the local drinking water. Alexandria Water Company soon officials determined the cause to be chemicals that had been dumped into a storm sewer by men at Cameron Station, the U.S. Army’s Quartermaster Depot. The affected water had to be drained from the water company’s reservoir and the City’s water supply was impacted for a week. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08031950CameronStation.jpg | Aerial view of Cameron Station. Courtesy, U.S. Army. | |
| 08/04 | 1898 | King Street | sidewalks | On August 4, 1898, the City received a novel complaint, that perambulators were occupying too much space on the sidewalks of King Street, forcing pedestrians to zig-zig their way along the main commercial thoroughfare, while unperturbed mothers shopped in adjacent stores at their leisure. Though sympathetic to the complainant, legally there was little recourse to restrict the increasingly large baby carriages of the period. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08041898VictorianCostumePram.jpg | Victorian pram. | ||
| 08/04 | 1965 | Duke Street at Van Dorn | Landmark Center | Shopping mall | On August 4, 1965, Landmark Center opened at the intersection of Duke and Van Dorn streets. Merchant representative estimated that more than 15,000 cars came to Landmark for the grand opening. The open-air shopping center was converted to a three-story enclosed mall in the late 1989s. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08041965LandmarkCenter.jpg | Landmark Center. Courtesy, Alexandria Police Department. | |
| 08/05 | 1774 | 107 South Alfred Street | Friendship Firehouse | Fire company | On August 5, 1774, Alexandria’s first volunteer fire company was established as the Friendship Fire Company. Initially the company was provided space in the Market Square area, but over time, several moves ensued as the needs of the company grew. In 1855 the company moved to a new firehouse built on South Alfred Street, with was a tall pointed steeple that could be seen from miles away. During the Civil War the firehouse was neglected, and by 1871, the impact of wind and weather on the steeple was so devastating that the building was closed and rebuilt. The steeple was removed and replaced by the lower cupola still in place today. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08051774FriendshipFestival.jpg | Friendship Firehouse Festival. Office of Historic Alexandria. | |
| 08/06 | 1890 | Canal Center Plaza | Alexandria Canal | Tidal Basin, Potomac River | On August 6, 1890, a report was issued indicating that the old Tidal Basin and lock of the Alexandria Canal adjacent to the Potomac River were deteriorating. A charter from Congress authorizing the canal had been passed just sixty years earlier, in response to a proposal by Alexandria merchants to build a canal linking Georgetown with the Alexandria seaport, to capitalize on the new Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. Ultimately, when the canal was complete, there was a vertical drop of 38 feet achieved by the construction of four locks over the seven-mile course. The canal was abandoned in 1886, and the towpath through what is now Arlington was replaced by the electric railway to Mount Vernon. It would be nearly 90 years later for the Tidal Basin and lock to be restored as part of Alexandria’s Canal Center development. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08061890CanalMap.jpg | Map of the Alexandria Canal. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 08/07 | 1900 | 1017 Cameron Street | Chicken, Washington Ewell, African American, farmer | On August 7, 1900, the Alexandria Gazette reported that a four-legged chicken was residing in the city at the home of Washington Ewell, a 65-year-old African American farmer who resided at 1017 Cameron Street. Although the newspaper considered the unusual fowl a “queer freak of nature,” the amazing bird was also described as “perfectly formed and remarkably active.” Interestingly, it was further confirmed that the yellow-bellied curiosity walked on only two legs, carrying the other two about one inch above the ground. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08071900Chickens.jpg | Chickens. | ||
| 08/07 | 1942 | 2911 Cameron Mills Road | Trinity United Methodist Church | Beverly Hills, Masonic lodge | On August 7, 1942, leaders from Trinity United Methodist Church and the local Masonic lodge, using George Washington’s trowel, set the cornerstone at Trinity’s new church in Beverly Hills. Bricks, furnishings and other materials from Trinity’s old church on Washington Street were used to construct the meeting house on Cameron Mills Road. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08071942TrinityCornerstone.jpg | Cornerstone, Trinity United Methodist Church. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 08/09 | 1974 | 514 Crown View Dr. | Gerald Ford House | Gerald Ford | On August 9, 1974, a day after his resignation as President of the United States, Richard Nixon departed from the White House for his home at San Clemente, California. Vice President Gerald R. Ford, who lived on Crown View Drive in Alexandria, was sworn in as the 38th president of the United States. After taking the oath of office, President Ford spoke to the nation in a television address, declaring, “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.” | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08091974GeraldFord.JPG | President Gerald Ford. Courtesy, Gerald Ford Library. | |
| 08/14 | 1814 | War of 1812, British, bank, militia, Potomac, Piscataway, Captain Dyson, Ft. Washington | Late in the War of 1812, during August 1814, Alexandrians recognized their increasing peril as British ships inched their way northward, up the Potomac. Responding to the pending emergency, on the 14th day of that month, the commercial banks of Georgetown, Washington and Alexandria agreed to loan the Federal government $200,000 for the purpose of providing a defense for the district. The Alexandria town and county militia were soon called out en masse and ordered to cross the Potomac to take up a post between Piscataway and Fort Washington. They took with them nearly all the arms and artillery belonging to the town, leaving Alexandria defenseless. Thus, when the militia retreated to the Virginia countryside and Captain Dyson, commander of Ft. Washington, blew up the fortress, Alexandria's fate was sealed. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08141814War1812Ships.jpg | Battle of Plattsburg on Lake Champlain, by Hugh Reinagle, 1816. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |||
| 08/14 | 1852 | 100 South Fairfax Street | Burke & Herbert Bank | John Woolfolk Burke, Arthur Herbert, bank | On August 14, 1852, Burke & Herbert Bank opened for business at the corner Prince and Water (Lee) streets. Founded by John Woolfolk Burke and Arthur Herbert, its headquarters have been located at King and South Fairfax streets since 1871. This Alexandria institution is now the oldest bank in the Commonwealth. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08141852BurkeandHerbertc1903.jpg | Burke and Herbert Bank. Souvenir Virginia Tercentennial 1607-1907 of Historic Alexandria, Virginia, by Andrew J. Wedderburn, Alexandria, 1907. | |
| 08/14 | 1918 | 110 Calahan Drive | Union Station | Prohibition, J.C. Shelhorse | On August 14, 1918, an Alexandria jury convicted a man of murder for killing a state prohibition agent. Earlier that summer, Inspector J.C. Shelhorse was shot and killed as he searched a train coming into Alexandria’s Union Station for illegal whiskey. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08141918ProhibitionBadge.jpg | Virginia Prohibition Inspector badge, ca. 1919. Courtesy, National Law Enforcement Museum, Washington, DC. | |
| 08/14 | 1946 | 905 North Washington Street | Hot Shoppes | City Council, Historic District, Old Town, George Washington Memorial Parkway | On August 14, 1946, the Alexandria City Council established the nation’s third oldest historic district regulating the appearance of a large swath of the downtown area now known as Old Town. The first historic district that regulated changes in the appearance of an historic area, through the police power of land use controls, was adopted by the City of Charleston, S.C., in 1931. That act was followed six years later by the City of New Orleans to protect its unusual French Quarter. In Alexandria, downtown businesses strongly opposed the historic designation, but the measure received strong support from residents who sought to preserve the hundreds of early buildings in the city center that remained from the 18th and 19th centuries. The National Park Service also weighed in, urging that the City take steps to protect the commemorative nature of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, which passed through Alexandria along Washington Street. The Park Service argued that inappropriate development, such as the recently constructed Hot Shoppes restaurant with neon signage and an adjacent iced custard shop that mimicked an Alaskan igloo, complete with a beckoning cement polar bear, were not in keeping with Alexandria’s colonial character. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08141946WasStPolarBearHotShoppes.jpg | Hot Shoppes restaurant and polar bear from nearby custard shop, Washington Street, Alexandria. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 08/16 | 1890 | King Street | Hooff's Run Bridge | Roads | On August 16, 1890, a small, but important, bridge was finally completed over Hooff’s Run at the western end of King Street, connecting downtown Alexandria with an unimpeded route westward via the Leesburg Road. Constructed by the city, Fairfax County and residents living along the roadway west of the stream, a crossing had long been needed at that location. Although no longer visible on King Street, the underground course of Hooff’s Run can still be traced in the beige colored brick meandering through King Street Gardens. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08161890HoofsRunBridgeOHA.jpg | Hooff's Run Bridge. Courtesy, Office of Historic Alexandria. | |
| 08/17 | 1814 | War of 1812, Capt. James Gordon, British, HMS Seahorse, Euralus, Erebus, Aetna, Devastation, Meteor, Fort Washington, Fort Warburton, Charles Napier | On August 17, 1814, towards the end of the War of 1812, Alexandrians agonized in desperation as they waited for a pending British attack. Capt. James Gordon, commander of a fleet of British ships, sailed into the mouth of the Potomac hoping to draw the Americans attention away from a pending attack from the north on the nation’s capital. Gordon’s ships included the 38-gun HMS Seahorse, the 36-gun Euryalus, the “rocket” vessel Erebus, and several bomb vessels, the Aetna, Devastation, and Meteor. All that lay between the prosperous town of Alexandria and the attack force was the fortification at Fort Washington (then called Fort Warburton), and the shallow depths and shoals of the riverbed. Gordon’s boats were slowed for days on at least twenty occasions due to grounding but, assisted by his second in command, Charles Napier, he persevered. Finally closing in on the Maryland fort, which was blown-up by its panicked commander almost immediately upon Gordon’s order to fire, the prize of Alexandria was now in site. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08171814JamesGordon.jpg | Rear-Admiral Sir James Alexander Gordon, (1782-1869), by Andrew Morton, 1839. (Wikimedia Commons). | |||
| 08/17 | 1956 | Mansion Drive | cross burning, Antisemitism, Mayor Bendheim | Shortly after 11 p.m. on the night of August 17, 1956, a crudely built, three-foot high cross wrapped in a towel saturated with kerosene was set aflame on the Mansion Drive front lawn of Alexandria Mayor Leroy S. Bendheim. The burning cross was discovered by Mrs. Bendheim who was able to douse the flames with a bucket of water. At the time, the Mayor was attending the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Neither the police, nor the Bendheims were able to offer any motive for the incident, and a survey of the neighborhood failed to establish any witnesses or suspects. | ||||
| 08/17 | 1963 | 727 South Picket Street | Columbia Van Lines and Meek's Transfer Co. | Warehouse, fire | On August 17, 1963, an Alexandria warehouse was destroyed by fire. The warehouse, which occupied an entire block on South Pickett Street, sustained hundreds of thousands of dollars in damaged before firefighters from six different companies were able to extinguish it. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08171963SPickettFire.jpg | "Alexandria firefighters soak warehouse fire," August 1963. | |
| 08/20 | 1814 | War of 1812, James Gordon, Mayor Charles Simms | The advance on Alexandria from a British fleet in August 1814 was planned to draw the attention away from a planned attack on Washington from the north. But starting on August 20, Captain James Gordon’s ships were delayed for days, repeatedly grounding on the shoals of the Potomac. By the time the fleet reached Fort Washington (then called Fort Warburton), the attack and burning of the nation’s capital had already occurred a week earlier. After the self-destruction of the Maryland fort by American forces, Gordon soon turned his attention to Alexandria. Realizing the predicament of the now defenseless town, the town’s Common Council quickly decided not to oppose a British attack. On a Sunday morning, Mayor Charles Simms and an entourage rowed southward towards the advancing fleet, waving a white flag and requesting terms of surrender to prevent the destruction of the town. Due to its being the Sabbath, Gordon sent the officials back to Alexandria, with instructions to wait until the following day. By morning, his ships had arrived, with guns directed at the small frame houses of the town. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08171814JamesGordon.jpg | Rear-Admiral Sir James Alexander Gordon, (1782-1869), by Andrew Morton, 1839. (Wikimedia Commons). | |||
| 08/21 | 1939 | 717 Queen Street | Barrett Library | sit-down strike, Civil Rights, African American, Samuel Wilbert Tucker, George Wilson, Jim Crow laws, Robinson Library, Alexandria Black History Museum | America’s First Sit-Down Strike: Becoming the trademark tactic of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, the first sit-in occurred well before the era of social unrest that would characterize the decade of the 1960s. Prior to the famous Woolworth counter sit-in in Greensboro, North Carolina, five courageous African-American youths staged the first deliberate and planned sit-in at the Alexandria “public” Library on August 21, 1939. On March 17, 1939, attorney Samuel Wilbert Tucker and retired Army Sergeant George Wilson, walked through the doors of the segregated Queen Street Library in Alexandria, Virginia and requested an application for a library card. Library policy was to not issue library cards to persons of the colored race. Tucker passed the newly erected Alexandria library on a daily basis, yet as an African American he had to travel to the District of Columbia to have access to library facilities. Unsatisfied with the unequal access to educational facilities, Tucker decided to battle the system of Jim Crow through the courts. A lawsuit was filed in the local court to force the librarian to issue a library card to Sergeant Wilson as a taxpaying citizen of the City of Alexandria. When the case was eventually heard on January 10, 1940, the judge rejected the petition for a library card for technical reasons, but affirmed that “there were no legal grounds for refusing the plaintiff or any other bona fide citizen the use of the library.” The Virginia Public Assemblages Act of 1926 stated that both races were to be segregated within the same facility, therefore according to the law African Americans were unlawfully barred from the Alexandria Library. Within two days of the judge’s decision, two African-Americans applied for library cards. Yet they were refused by being informed that a new colored branch of the Alexandria library was under construction and that their application was under consideration. This was an obvious tactic to appease them until a separate colored branch could be opened. The colored branch was the Robinson Library, now the site of the Alexandria Black History Museum. Although this first act of defiance against the system of Jim Crow did not garner the media attention, this was the first step towards the City of Alexandria seriously considering a colored branch for its African-American citizens and facing the issue of accessibility, however unequal, for all of its citizens. |
/uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08211939BH1939SitIn.jpg | Police leading participants in the sit-down strike out of the Alexandria Library. Courtesy, Alexandria Black History Museum. | |
| 08/23 | 1898 | 301 King Street | Market Square | F.A. Coakley, invention, cockroach trap, insects | On August 23, 1898, amateur inventor Mr. F.A. Coakley almost impressed curious Alexandrians at Market Square with a test of his clever design for a cockroach trap. Designed out of pasteboard and shaped like a spyglass, the bedeviling household pests were tempted to enter the trap, seeking a pungent onion inside, whereupon a door would close upon the insects, trapping them inside. The device worked very well at first, with a collection of ravenous roaches quickly becoming ensnared in the device. However, the insects quickly consumed the onion within the core of the device and, when only the skins were left, the insects turned their attention to eating a large hole through the wall of the trap, escaping into the marketplace. Coakley’s device was deemed “. . .one of the most decided failures of this ingenious and inventive age.” | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08231898Cockroach.jpg | Cockroach. | |
| 08/24 | 1874 | King Street and Alfred Street | Peabody School | Teachers' Institute | On August 24 and 25, 1874, about 50 teachers and other interested parties attended the Teachers’ Institute at the Peabody School building at King and Alfred streets. The superintendent of Alexandria’s schools addressed the audience as did educators from Washington, D.C., and New Orleans, speaking on topics such as “The Teaching of History” and “School Hygiene.” | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08241874PeabodyBuilding.jpg | Peabody School Building King and Alfred Streets. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 08/24 | 1933 | Great Depression, haircuts, price increase | On August 24, 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, the price of a haircut in Alexandria increased from 35 to 50 cents! Although local men grumbled at the whopping increase, at the time haircuts were considered essential to good grooming, and almost as important as a daily starched collar and cuffs! Although some men vowed to let their wives cut their hair, others looking for work or lucky enough to be employed, could not take such a chance with their appearance and ultimately paid the higher price. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08241933MensHaircuts1930s.jpg | Men's hairstyles of the 1930s. | |||
| 08/26 | 1948 | Alexandria Citizen's Band, Virginia State Fireman's Convention | One August 26, 1948, the Alexandria Citizen’s Band was honored to win first prize in a competition held at the Virginia State Fireman’s Convention. The local band, a community organization comprising volunteer members who bring musical entertainment to Northern Virginia, Alexandria, and the DC Metro area, still plays a summer concert series annually at Alexandria’s Market Square and at community special events. The band was organized in 1912 and is one of the oldest community bands in the country. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08261848CitizensBand.JPG | Alexandria Citizens Band, in concert on Market Square. Courtesy, Alexandria Citizens Band. | |||
| 08/27 | 1948 | 600 Russell Road | Maury School | Alexandria Citizen's Band, Virginia State Fireman's Convention | On August 27, 1948, the Alexandria Citizens Band gave a concert outside Maury School to celebrate its first prize honors at Virginia State Fireman’s Convention days before. The band had previously won top honors several times at the competition. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08271948CitizenBand1928.jpg | Alexandria Citizens Band marching west on Cameron Street, 1828. Courtesy, Alexandria Library Special Collections. | |
| 08/28 | 1814 | War of 1812, Mayor Charles Simms, Captain Gordon, surrender, waterfront | In August 1814, during the War of 1812, Alexandrians recognized their increasing peril as the British juggernaut inched its way northward, up the Potomac. With the exception of two institutions, the commercial banks of Georgetown, Washington and Alexandria agreed to loan the Government $200,000 for the purpose of providing a defense for the region. The Alexandria town and county militia were called out en masse in late August of 1814 and were ordered to cross the Potomac to take up a post between Piscataway and Fort Washington. They took with them nearly all the arms and artillery belonging to the town, leaving Alexandria defenseless. Thus, when the militia retreated to the Virginia countryside and Captain Dyson, commander of Fort Washington, blew up the fortress, Alexandria's fate was sealed. On the morning of August 28, 1814, a committee led by Alexandria Mayor Charles Simms rowed south to meet the British Captain Gordon and request terms of surrender. Refusing to give conditions, Gordon and his fleet arrived at Alexandria’s waterfront in the evening. The next morning, the British lined up their gunboats (two frigates, the 38-gun Sea Horse and the 36-gun Euryalus; a "rocket ship"; three bomb vessels of eight guns each; and a two-gun schooner). They were "so situated that they might have laid [the town] in ashes in a few minutes." | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08281814JohnnyBull1812.jpg | Johnny Bull and the Alexandrians. William Charles, 1814. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |||
| 08/29 | 1795 | Wilkes Street | Penny Hill Cemetery | Burial ground, cemetery | On August 29, 1795, the Alexandria Council purchased land on the western edge of the city, along South Payne Street, to create the Penny Hill Cemetery, a burial ground for indigent paupers and the poor. Years later, Freedmen who died during the first two years of the Civil War (1861-1863) are thought to have been buried at Penny Hill, prior to establishment of the Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery. Unfortunately, most tombstones at the early burial ground have deteriorated or vanished. Today, only eleven scattered grave stones remain. Exactly 150 years to the day later, the city again purchased another land tract to expand Penny Hill. Text of advertisement: "Francis Peyton, George Deneale, and James Keith are appointed a Committee, to purchase a piece of ground for a general burying ground, containing not less than two acres, nor exceeding four acres -- not nearer to any part of the town, than half a mile from the west line of Washington Street." |
/uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08291795PennyHillNotice.JPG | Notice from the Alexandria Gazette. | |
| 08/29 | 1814 | War of 1812, James Gordon, Mayor Charles Simms | On August 29, 1814, a British fleet under the command of Captain James Gordon finally anchored off Alexandria, with guns pointed directly at the defenseless city. At the request of Mayor Charles Simms the previous day, strict “Terms of Capitulation” were soon offered by Capt. Gordon. “In consequences of a deputation yesterday received from the city of Alexandria, requesting favorable terms for the safety of the city, the under mentioned are the only conditions in my power to offer. The town of Alexandria, with the exception of public works, shall not be destroyed, unless hostilities are commenced on the part of the Americans, nor shall the inhabitants be molested in any manner whatever, or their dwelling houses entered, if the following articles are complied with . . .” Captain Gordon offered terms which called for the removal of naval supplies, ships and agricultural commodities from the port. At the mercy of the British squadron, the town council acceded to the enemy's demands, and for the next five days the British confiscated the contents of stores and warehouses taking 16,000 barrels of flour, 1,000 hogsheads of tobacco, 150 bales of cotton and some $5,000 worth of wine, sugar and other items. On September 2, the British weighed anchor, leaving Alexandria badly looted, but physically intact. |
/uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08171814JamesGordon.jpg | Rear-Admiral Sir James Alexander Gordon, (1782-1869), by Andrew Morton, 1839. (Wikimedia Commons). | |||
| 09/01 | 1922 | Wilder Rich, City Manager | On September 1, 1922, after years of debate on management responsibilities within Alexandria government, the City Council formally appointed Wilder Rich as the city’s first City Manager. This new form of government delegated the day-to-day management and implementation of Council policy decisions to an appointed, rather than an elected official. The new City Manager immediately began professionalizing city departments and confronting serious problems that had plagued the city for decades. One week later, on September 8 of that year, Alexandria began the first system of public trash and garbage collection as a city service, a welcome improvement over the littered streets and backyard dump sites routine in Alexandria in the early 20th century. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09011922WilderRich.JPG | Wilder Rich, Alexandria's first City Manager. | |||
| 09/02 | 1790 | Alexandria Lottery, street paving | On September 2, 1790, the Virginia General Assembly approved the creation of an Alexandria Lottery to raise funds for the paving of streets within the expanding town of Alexandria. Since its founding in 1749, the town had tried a number of low-cost ways to eliminate muddy conditions on local streets that were a constant nuisance to townspeople and at times even prevented passage along King Street in the swampy areas between North Pitt and St. Asaph Streets. Using slave and itinerant workers, and even Hessian soldiers over the years had only modest success installing the round cobblestones in the street grid, and raising taxes to the level needed for the work program would have been a huge burden on residents of the young town. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09021790PrincessStreetCobbles.jpg | Cobblestones on Princess Street. Alexandria Library Special Collections. | |||
| 09/02 | 1814 | War of 1812, Captain James Gordon, Mayor Charles Simms, surrender, Terms of Capitulation. | On August 29, 1814, a British fleet under the command of Captain James Gordon finally anchored off Alexandria, with guns pointed directly at the defenseless city. At the request of Mayor Charles Simms the previous day, strict “Terms of Capitulation” were soon offered by Capt. Gordon. “In consequences of a deputation yesterday received from the city of Alexandria, requesting favorable terms for the safety of the city, the under mentioned are the only conditions in my power to offer. The town of Alexandria, with the exception of public works, shall not be destroyed, unless hostilities are commenced on the part of the Americans, nor shall the inhabitants be molested in any manner whatever, or their dwelling houses entered, if the following articles are complied with . . .” Captain Gordon offered terms which called for the removal of naval supplies, ships and agricultural commodities from the port. At the mercy of the British squadron, the town council acceded to the enemy's demands, and for the next five days the British confiscated the contents of stores and warehouses taking 16,000 barrels of flour, 1,000 hogsheads of tobacco, 150 bales of cotton and some $5,000 worth of wine, sugar and other items. On September 2, the British weighed anchor, leaving Alexandria badly looted, but physically intact. |
/uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/08171814JamesGordon.jpg | Rear-Admiral Sir James Alexander Gordon, (1782-1869), by Andrew Morton, 1839. (Wikimedia Commons). | |||
| 09/02 | 1846 | Retrocession, slavery, African American | On September 2, 1846, Alexandrians voted 763 to 22 to retrocede from the District of Columbia back to the Commonwealth of Virginia. Alexandria was first included in the new national capital site recommended by George Washington in 1791. Ten years later, the 31 square miles of land on the south side of the Potomac was designated as Alexandria County. But with the construction of federal buildings restricted to the area north of the river (ceded by the State of Maryland,) construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal which enhanced port facilities at the competing port of Georgetown, and lack of representation in Congress, Alexandrians soon felt their community had been short-changed, and by the 1830’s petitions to Congress to release the area from federal control had begun. Though Alexandria had been included within the District for nearly 50 years, residents lamented their loss of voting rights and lack of resources invested in the area by the federal government. A proposal to outlaw slavery in the national capital also influenced the referendum, as Alexandria was then a major slave trading center with the city’s economy relying heavily on slave labor, both downtown and in the rural agricultural areas that surrounded it. When the vote was tallied at the courthouse on North Columbus Street, some African Americans sat on the curb and cried, realizing that a return to Virginia governance would end educational opportunities for black schoolchildren in Alexandria. |
/uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09021846BasReliefFreedmens.jpg | Bas relief, Contrabands and Freedmen Memorial. Office of Historic Alexandria. | |||
| 09/04 | 1859 | North Washington Street | Beth El Hebrew Congregation | Reform Synagogue, Hebrew Benevolent Society | In the mid-19th century Alexandria was a bustling port and prosperous commercial center. By 1856 more than 30 Jews, most from Germany, had immigrated to the city seeking freedom, dignity, and their fortunes in the various retail trades. By 1857, the families had established the Hebrew Benevolent Society to create a Jewish burial ground. By 1859 two congregations, one Reform and one Orthodox, had formed, but they settled their basic differences in time to celebrate the High Holy Days together in 1860. The Reform Congregation, Beth El Hebrew Congregation, was formed on September 4, 1859. In 1871, Beth El had established a Temple on North Washington Street, pictured above, which served the congregation for the next 84 years. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09041859BethEl.jpg | Beth El Hebrew Congregation, North Washington Street. Washingtoniana Division, DC Public Library. | |
| 09/05 | 1914 | 301 King Street | City Hall | Relief Hook and Ladder Company, Reliance Fire Company, public auction | On September 5, 1914, the City of Alexandria sold two white horses, which had been used by the Relief Hook and Ladder Company. Both horses sold for more than $100 a piece at the public auction held in front of City Hall. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09051914FireHorses.jpg | Relief Fire Co. #5, 115 N. Patrick Street. Charles Sampson Collection, Alexandria Library, Special Collections. | |
| 09/06 | 1654 | Margaret Brent, patent, Robert Howson, John Alexander | On September 6, 1654, Dame Margaret Brent received a land grant of 700 acres of land that included the future site of what is now Old Town, Alexandria. Brent had emigrated to the American colonies from Scotland with her two brothers and one sister, after their oldest brother had inherited all their fathers’ estate. She settled in Maryland and was a legal advisor to the powerful Calvert family. Now recognized as the first female attorney in America, Brent unsuccessfully advocated there for voting rights for women. In 1669, Governor Berkeley awarded an overlapping land grant to Robert Howson, an English ship captain. This tract extended along the Potomac River, from Hunting Creek on the south to the Little Falls on the north. Less than a month later, Howson sold the land to Scotsman John Alexander. The town was later named for the Alexander family in 1749. |
/uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09061654Brent.gif | Margaret Brent, conjectural painting by Louis Glanzman. Courtesy, National Geographic Society. | |||
| 09/07 | 1930 | Four Mile Run | Four Mile Run | Alexandria police Department, August Perault Pierce | On September 7, 1930, Alexandria police officer August Perault Pierce was killed in the line of duty. Private Pierce had located a robbery suspect near Four Mile Run and confronted him. The suspect drew a gun and the two exchanged fire. The officer died at the scene and the suspect died a day later. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09071930APPierce.jpg | August Perault Pierce. Courtesy, Alexandria Police Department. | |
| 09/09 | 1891 | Wythe Street at Saint Asaph Street | Portner's Brewery | Fire, brewery, Tivoli | On September 9, 1891, a large fire erupted at the southeast corner of Wythe and St. Asaph Streets, in one of the buildings operated as part of Portner’s Brewery, a massive beer and ale bottling and storage complex extending across several blocks bound by Washington, Pitt, Wythe and Pendleton Streets. The brewery was started in 1864 from humble beginnings out of the small grocery store operated by Robert Portner, a German-born immigrant who rose to become one of Alexandria’s most prominent citizens. By 1890, Portner’s business produced over 60,000 barrels of his special brews named Vienna Cabinet and Tivoli and was one of Northern Virginia’s largest employers. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09091891TivoliPrint.jpg | Tivoli Brewery, Robert Portner Brewing Company. Courtesy, Portner Brewhouse. | |
| 09/09 | 1942 | Old and Historic Alexandria District, historic preservation | On September, 9, 1942, the Alexandria City Manager proposed a new board of review to consider the impact of alterations, new construction and demolition of buildings within early sections of the city. Modeled on historic districts in Charleston, South Carolina and New Orleans, Louisiana, the controversial proposal ultimately resulted in the creation of the “Old and Historic Alexandria District” four years later. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09091942HistoricDistrictPrinceSt.jpg | Prince Street. | |||
| 09/10 | 1921 | Jones Point | Virginia Shipbuilding | Fire, Old Dominion Glass Factory, Mutual Ice | On September 10, 1921, the Virginia Shipbuilding yard at Jones Points was one of three commercial sites that caught fire on the same night. A storage warehouse at the shipyard suffered $200,000 in damage, and both the Old Dominion Glass and Mutual Ice plants, about a mile apart, also sustained significant damage due to suspicious fires. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09101921Shipyard.jpg | Virginia Shipbuilding Corporation, Jones Point. | |
| 09/10 | 1955 | Annexation, Fairfax County | On September 10, 1955, within just a few years of doubling the size of the City of Alexandria by annexing land west of Quaker Lane from Fairfax County, the City completed its first comprehensive land use plan and economic base survey. In a demonstration of civic pride, these actions, and several others made in 1955 to create or reorganize City departments, were publicly presented at a special Municipal Exhibition-Demonstration that highlighted new services and activities offered by the City to its citizens, and a vision for the future. The ambitious municipal program, authorized by Mayor Leroy S. Bendheim and City Council, and implemented by City Manager Edward G. Heatwole, provided the foundation for modern day Alexandria. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09101955AnnexationMap.jpg | Annexation Map. City of Alexandria. | |||
| 09/11 | 1887 | USS Dolphin | On September 11, 1887, the USS Dolphin sailed past the City of Alexandria with a squad of U.S. Marines bound for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The ship had previously anchored in the Potomac River off Alexandria, and steamed on to the Washington Navy Yard to pick up “a few good men” scheduled to participate in the Constitution Centennial commemoration held that year. The New York-based Dolphin was a sleek and elegant, largely ceremonial ship operated by the U.S. Navy, famous for Congressional visits, “champagne cruises” by government dignitaries, and as a transport ship for the Secretary of the Navy. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09111887USSDolphin.jpg | USS Dolphin, 1891. Courtesy, Department of the Navy. Bureau of Construction and Repair. | |||
| 09/12 | 1918 | draft board, World War I | On September 12, 1918, Alexandria draft board officials registered 2,250 men between the ages of 18 and 45. Dozens more who were going to be out of the City on that date because of their jobs registered earlier in the week. A list of all men who registered in Alexandria is available online from the Alexandria Library Special Collections. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09121918DraftCard.jpg | Draft Card for Alexandria resident, 1943. | |||
| 09/15 | 1905 | 110 Calahan Drive | Union Station | Railroad | On September 15, 1905, the Alexandria Union Station opened at cost of $62,000. New iron bridges over King Street and Commonwealth Avenues had been constructed a couple years earlier for the new station. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09151905UnionStation.jpg | Union Station Alexandria, historic postcard. Courtesy Alexandria Library, Special Collections. | |
| 09/17 | 1889 | Electric street lamps | On the evening of September 17, 1889, the Alexandria Gazette reported the illumination of the first 40 electric street lamps in Alexandria, the first time electricity was used for public street lighting in the city. Although there was no grand ceremony as the lights were turned on from a new electrical plant built at the site of the old gasworks, small crowds still gathered at various intersections where 1,500 candlepower light fixtures had been erected 20 feet overhead. At dusk, Mayor Downham and plant manager W.E. Guthrie activated the current, and across the city could be heard cheers of excitement as “steady, almost white lights” burned brilliantly for the first time. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09171889Streetlight.jpg | Early streetlight, Alexandria. | |||
| 09/17 | 1949 | 1005 Mount Vernon Avenue | George Washington High School | Del Ray, football, Harry S. Truman, time capsule, Bicentennial | On September 17, 1949, the George Washington High School in Del Ray was just beginning its football season. It was a magnificent fall day; the stadium was filled with excited fans, including the President of the United States, Harry S Truman, who had come earlier to Alexandria to assist with the burial of a time capsule, honoring the City’s bicentennial at the flagpole near the north goal post. The capsule, a stainless steel cylinder, approximately 4 feet long and 8 inches in diameter, was filled with photographs, newspapers, documents, books and artifacts recording life in Alexandria dating back to 1749. Warner Brothers Pathe News recorded the event and it was shown in over 176,000 theaters nationwide. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09171949GWSchool.jpg | George Washington High School. | |
| 09/19 | 1953 | Jones Point | Jones Point | Lighthouse, National Park Service, Virginia Shipbuilding Company, Children's Toyland of America, Valerie McMahan | On September 19, 1953, the Federal government approved the transfer of lands at Jones Point to Alexandria and the National Park Service for public use. The filled area adjacent to the Jones Point Lighthouse witnessed significant use decades earlier during World War I when the Virginia Shipbuilding Company began constructing major warships at the site. But the shipyard closed soon after the war ended and the land grew quiet until the early 1930s, when it was used as a Civilian Conservation Corps camp. Then, in 1933, an ambitious plan was unveiled by a local author to transform the former shipyard administration building and surrounding area into an unusual industrial attraction: the Children’s Toyland of America. Valerie McMahan purchased the site and announced the project to manufacture dolls, toys and books at the riverfront site in Alexandria, based on her popular book series, The Baseball Kids. Concerned that many children had no place to pursue their sense of wonder — and that toys of the period were largely manufactured in Japan or Germany while Depression-era Americans went jobless — McMahan proposed to employ toymakers by the thousands at the Alexandria location. Within a year, new water mains, gas pipes and electricity were being laid at the site to service the necessary manufacturing processes. McMahan also let it be known that the new factory was to become the “children’s capitol of the nation,” and to that end she planned to erect a huge dome on top of the building, similar to that of the U.S. Capitol, where children and their parents would always be welcomed. Her extensive plans for the site included additional buildings for childhood displays, park areas and landscaping, and even a boat service connection with Washington, D.C. The wistful plan for Alexandria’s Toyland was short-lived, however, running afoul of the Federal government’s plans for the area. In 1936 the U.S. Signal Corps established a communications center nearby, and in 1940, an executive order condemned the entire site for a secret government use. |
/uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09191953JonesPointLighthouseNARA.jpg | Jones Point Lighthouse, 1929. Courtesy, National Archives. | |
| 09/21 | 1955 | South Washington Street at Prince Street, NE corner | George Mason Hotel | Postage stamp, Robert E. Lee | On September 21, 1955, Alexandrians held a special ceremony to commemorate the issue of a 30-cent postage stamp honoring Robert E. Lee. The stamps, which had been flown in that day from Norfolk, went on sale following a luncheon at the George Mason Hotel and sold out in 15 minutes. The new stamp, part of a special definitive series of stamps distributed between 1954 and 1965, was known as the “Liberty Issue,” so named as three of the 24 denominations issued portrayed the Statue of Liberty in monocolor and two-color editions. This series marked the first time the United States Postal Service had issued a series of stamps that included both notable American landmarks, including Mount Vernon, and famous Americans, such as Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry and Susan B. Anthony. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09211955RELeeStamp.jpg | Robert E. Lee postage stamp. Courtesy, Smithsonian National Postal Museum. | |
| 09/22 | 1896 | 500-508 King Street | Lannon's Opera House | African American, Emancipation Proclamation, parade, opera house | On September 22, 1896, African Americans in Alexandria celebrated the 33rd anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Participants enjoyed a parade, which was followed by a program and speeches at the opera house. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09221896EmancipationCelebration.jpg | Poster for 1896 Emancipation parade. Courtesy, Virginia Historical Society. | |
| 09/22 | 1897 | 917 Princess Street | Third Baptist Church | Emancipation Proclamation, African American, John Mercer Langston, U.S. Congress | On September 22, 1897, African Americans in Alexandria commemorated the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, 34 years after it was issued, with a celebration at the Third Baptist Church. The featured speaker was John Mercer Langston, the first African American elected to Congress from Virginia. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09221897ThirdBaptist.jpg | Third Baptist Church, Alexandria. | |
| 09/28 | 1955 | Woodrow Wilson Bridge | Capital Beltway, ground-breaking ceremony | In 1944, the Inter-County Metropolitan Freeway was proposed to connect Route 1 near Gum Springs, Virginia, with the Baltimore -Washington Parkway, on a westward route through Tysons Corner. By 1952 the plan was revised to completely encircle the nation’s capital with the Washington Circumferential Highway, crossing the Potomac River at the southern edge of Washington via a proposed Jones Point Bridge. On September 28, 1955, the federal government formally authorized the new highway through Alexandria, with the name shortened to the Capital Beltway. Several months later, the name of the yet-to-be-built bridge was also changed, to honor the centennial of the birth of the nation’s 28th President. On September 25, 1958 ground-breaking ceremonies were held near Jones Point, to start construction of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. The formal opening of the bridge was held on December 21, 1961, with Wilson’s wife Edith expected to attend. However, she died suddenly that very morning, just hours before the dedication ceremony began. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09281955WilsonBridge.JPG | Woodrow Wilson Bridge. | ||
| 09/29 | 1857 | 3737 Seminary Road | Virginia Theological Seminary | Aspinwall Hall, National Register of Historic Places | On September 29, 1857, the Virginia Theological Seminary chose Aspinwall Hall as the name for a new building being planned for the campus. Plans called for the building to be “three stories high” and include “a tower, cupola, or spire, arranged for a clock, and a place of observation.” The name was chosen to honor the family name of William A. and John L. Aspinwall, who had earlier donated funds to erect a library on the campus known as Key Hall, named after Francis Scott Key, a founder of the organization and the composer of The Star Spangled Banner. Dedicated on October, 3, 1859, Aspinwall Hall was designed by architect Norris G. Starkweather using both Norman and Italianate influences. The imposing new building stood over 100 feet in height, and was placed on a hilltop already 256 feet above sea level, making it the tallest and most visually prominent landmark in the area for many decades. The Virginia Theological Seminary is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09291857Aspinwall1859.jpg | Aspinwall Hall, Virginia Theological Seminary, etching, 1859. | |
| 09/29 | 1896 | Storm | On September 29, 1896, a severe storm caused extensive damage in and around Alexandria. High winds from a hurricane, the fourth of the Atlantic season, impacted the downtown area as well as Del Ray and outlying areas. Two people were killed in Alexandria and dozens of buildings, including the Third Baptist Church, the Virginia Glassworks, Smoot’s planing mill, and Pioneers Mills, were heavily damaged. Telegraph service, the gas works, trains and the electric railway were also impacted by the storm and debris. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09291896NorthAlexandria1890s.jpg | Map of northern Alexandria in the 1890. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |||
| 09/30 | 1852 | Hunting Creek | Hog pens, farming, livestock | On September 30, 1852, the Alexandria Justice of Peace directed the removal of privately-owned hog pens along Hunting Creek to abate nuisance complaints. Apparently, the smells associated with the slow-moving, stagnant waterway, combined with the stench of swine husbandry operations in the area became too overpowering for nearby property owners to bear. |
/uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09301852Hogs.jpg | |||
| 10/01 | 1931 | George Washington Bicentennial Commission, Mayor Smoot, Lloyd House, George Washington Masonic National Memorial, George Washington Memorial Parkway | On October 1, 1931 the Alexandria City Council appointed the George Washington Bicentennial Commission to arrange and promote activities in Alexandria associated with the 200th birthday of our nation’s first president. Chaired by former Mayor William Albert Smoot, who resided at Lloyd House, now the headquarters for the Office of Historic Alexandria., the celebration would be one of the first to officially promote Alexandria as a tourism destination. Not only did Washington regard Alexandria as his hometown, but he had even helped survey the land that became Alexandria when he was just 17 years of age. Among the major physical landmarks that grew out of the Bicentennial Commemoration are the George Washington Masonic National Memorial and the George Washington Memorial Parkway. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10011931GWBicent.jpg | Souvenir of the George Washington Bicentennial, 1932. | |||
| 10/03 | 1859 | 3737 Seminary Road | Virginia Theological Seminary | Bishop William Meade, Aspinwall Hall | On October 3, 1859, Bishop William Meade formally dedicated Aspinwall Hall at the Virginia Theological Seminary. Named in honor of two benefactors who had donated funding for an earlier structure, Aspinwall Hall featured semi-circular arched windows and doors, corner buttresses, rounded arch openings, and a central tower with a domed cupola. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10031859AspinwallHall.jpg | Aspinwall Hall. Courtesy, National Archives. | |
| 10/03 | 1910 | 318 Prince Street | Elks Club | Alexandria Lodge, No. 758 | On October 3, 1910, a “day and night of unalloyed pleasure” was witnessed on Prince Street as the Alexandria Lodge, No. 758, Benevolent Protective Order of the Elks, opened the doors of their magnificent new hall for public viewing. Mothers, wives and children of Elks members led tours of the building, explaining the different purposes of the beautifully furnished rooms and hosted a splendid reception throughout the day. After opening ceremonies, Alexandria Congressman C.C. Carlin delivered a lecture entitled “Home” which was received with thunderous applause, and a program of musical entertainment and dancing continued well into the night. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10031910ElksLodge.jpg | Elks Club, 318 Prince Street. | |
| 10/03 | 1953 | 4301 West Braddock Road | Fort Ward | Civil War forts, African American community "The Fort" | On October 3, 1953 the Alexandria City Council appointed a special committee to investigate the possibility of restoring Civil War forts in the city, which had nearly doubled in size a year earlier due to the annexation of land west of North Quaker Lane. Ultimately, the committee recommended the acquisition of privately-owned property along then rural Braddock Road to restore the northwest bastion of Fort Ward, and preserve the significant earthworks surrounding it, in time for the centennial of the Civil War commemoration. At the time this was little concern for a significant African American community known as “The Fort” that was displaced by the project, but tracing the history of that settlement is now a special initiative of an integrated management plan being developed for Fort Ward Park. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10031953NWBastionFortWard.jpg | Northwest Bastion of Fort Ward under excavation. Office of Historic Alexandria. | |
| 10/05 | 1860 | 207 South Patrick Street | Grace Episcopal Church | The Lyceum, Civil War hospital | On October 5, 1860 Grace Episcopal Church consecrated its first building on South Patrick Street. Founded five years earlier by about thirty families, the new congregation met for several years at The Lyceum while funds were raised for the new facility. But within eight months, the American Civil War began and Alexandria was occupied by Union troops who used the new building for a hospital facility attending to sick soldiers and injured men wounded in Virginia battles. After the war ended it took decades for Alexandria to recover economically and this affected religious institutions as well. It was not until 1893 that a weekly celebration of the Eucharist, and Choral Eucharist each Sunday, began at Grace Episcopal. In 1948 a new, larger church building was dedicated at 3601 Russell Road which still serves the Alexandria community today. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10051860GraceEpiscopalChurch.jpg | Grace Episcopal Church. | |
| 10/05 | 1860 | President James Buchanan, Prince of Wales, George Washington | On October 5, 1860, President James Buchanan, accompanied by none other than the Prince of Wales, passed through Alexandria on their way to pay the heir-apparent’s respects at the tomb of our nation’s first president, George Washington, at Mount Vernon. Earlier that year, Her Majesty Queen Victoria had sent her eighteen-year-old son, Albert Edward, also known as “Bertie,” on his first Royal visit, a good will tour of Canada and the United States. Although the young Prince (later he became King Edward VII) had not yet developed his unusual sense of fashion and roguish behavior, he was indeed received as a “Royal Spectacle” in the locations he visited, and Alexandria was no exception. During the highly acclaimed tour, in New York the Prince viewed a high-wire crossing of the Niagara Falls, and later he participated in a public prayer for the British monarchy, the first held on Manhattan Island since the American Revolution. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10051860PrinceofWales.jpg | The Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. | |||
| 10/06 | 1796 | 134 North Royal Street | Gadsby's Tavern | John Gadsby | On October 6, 1796, the City Tavern welcomed its new tavern keeper, John Gadsby. The Englishman had excellent credentials having previously run a tavern on Union Street. Gadsby remained as the proprietor of tavern on North Royal Street until 1808. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10061796JohnGadsbyPortrait.jpg | Portrait of John Gadsby. Courtesy, Gadsby's Tavern Museum. | |
| 10/07 | 1975 | Franklin Street and South Pitt Street | Taylor-Fraser House | 109 S. Pitt St, house moved | On October 7, 1975, the historic Taylor-Fraser House was moved from 109 South Pitt Street to the southeast corner of Franklin and South Pitt. It was loaded atop a set of airplane tires and with the help of three modified military tanks, it was transported down Washington Street, a route selected because it minimized impact to power lines and trees. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10071975HouseMove.jpg | Moving the Taylor-Fraser house down Washington Street, 1975. | |
| 10/08 | 1943 | Barrett Elementary School | Marine Corps, Charles Dodson Barrett, World War II, Parkfairfax | On October 8, 1943 U.S. Marine Corps Major General Charles Dodson Barrett, who had grown up in Alexandria, died in World War II in the South Pacific. Barrett was the first Commanding General of the 3d Marine Division. A new elementary school in Parkfairfax was name in Barrett’s honor not long after his death. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10081943CharlesBarrett.jpg | Portrait of Charles Barrett. Courtesy, U.S. Marine Corps History Division. | ||
| 10/10 | 1948 | 105 North Union Street | Torpedo Factory Art Center | U.S. Naval Torpedo Station | On October 10, 1948, more than 13,000 people attended an open house reception at the U.S. Naval Ordnance plant in Alexandria, now the Torpedo Factory Arts Center, to celebrate the 173rd anniversary of the creation of the United States Navy. The actual date of the resolution to establish a Navy occurred on October 13, 1775 in Philadelphia, when Congress "Resolved, That a swift sailing vessel, to carry ten carriage guns, and a proportionable number of swivels, with eighty men, be fitted, with all possible despatch, for a cruise of three months, and that the commander be instructed to cruize eastward, for intercepting such transports as may be laden with warlike stores and other supplies for our enemies, and for such other purposes as the Congress shall direct.” | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10101948TorpedoFactoryDockc1925.jpg | The U.S. Naval Torpedo Station, 1925. Courtesy, National Museum of the U.S. Navy, Washington, DC. | |
| 10/11 | 1899 | Sesquicentennial, parade | October 11, 1899, Alexandria kicked off its sesquicentennial celebration with an illumination display by boats in the Potomac. The following day, with flags, banners and other decorations on homes and businesses all around town, Alexandria held a parade that stretched three miles. An estimated 15,000 to 20,000 visitors came to Alexandria to join in the festivities. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10111899Parade.jpg | Sesquicentennial parade, 1899. | |||
| 10/13 | 1905 | King Street | Cole & Rogers Circus | On October 13, 1905, the Cole & Rogers Circus opened in at the old fairgrounds along upper King Street. The circus, featuring performers and live animals, had a free parade at noon and then paid performances in the afternoon and evening. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10131905CircusPoster.jpg | Cole & Rogers Circus Poster. Courtesy, Circus World Museum, Baraboo, Wisconsin. | ||
| 10/13 | 1955 | Langley | Alexandria Chamber of Commerce, Central Intelligence Agency, CIA | On October 13, 1955 the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce contacted over 1,000 businessmen in the Northern Virginia region, seeking their assistance to identify an appropriate location for the new headquarters for the Central Intelligence Agency. After a number of sites in Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax County were considered, ultimately a semi-rural site in Langley, named for the ancestral home in England of Thomas Lee who acquired the land in 1719, was selected soon after due to its privacy, security and proximity to Washington. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10131955CIALangley.jpg | Aerial view of CIA headquarters, Langley, VA. | ||
| 10/14 | 1918 | 105 North Union Street | Torpedo Factory Art Center | U.S. Naval Torpedo Station, Mark XIV torpedo, Mark III aircraft torpedo | On, October 14, 1918, a contract was awarded by the United States government for construction of the U.S. Naval Torpedo Station on the Alexandria waterfront. Ironically, work on the building began on November 12, 1918, the day after Armistice Day, which marked the official end of World War I. The first torpedo was produced there in November 1920. Once fully operational, the Torpedo Station was responsible for the manufacture and maintenance of torpedoes for the next five years. Work stopped and the facility served as a munitions storage area until World War II when production on the Mark XIV (a submarine borne torpedo) and the Mark III aircraft torpedo resumed at an intense rate. Over time, ten additional buildings were added to the complex. In 1974 the building was converted into the Torpedo Factory Arts Center, one of the nation’s first adaptive reuse projects for a historic building. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10141918TorpedoAerial.jpg | Aerial view of the Torpedo Factory, 1920s. | |
| 10/15 | 1862 | Wilkes Street | Alexandria National Cemetery | Civil War | On October 15, 1862, with deaths from Civil War battles in Virginia increasing drastically, the City of Alexandria formally leased land at the west end of Wilkes Street to the Federal government for creation of the Alexandria National Cemetery, the nation’s first military cemetery. Within a year, the cemetery was filled almost to capacity nearing 4,000 graves, most of which contained the remains of soldiers brought to Alexandria for medical care. Running out of burial ground in Alexandria, Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs seized on the idea of burying war dead on the lawns surrounding “Arlington House,” the vacated Custis homestead owned by the wife of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, which was then occupied by Union troops just north of the city. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10151862NationalCemetery.jpg | Alexandria National Cemetery. Clayton B. Fraser, HABS/HAER 2004, Library of Congress. | |
| 10/16 | 1824 | 301 South Saint Asaph Street | Lafayette House | Marquis de Lafayette, "Grand Tour of America", procession, Clagett's Tavern, Mayor Roberts, General Walter Jones, Capt. Williams | On October 16, 1824, the beloved Marquis de Lafayette arrived in Alexandria for an extended visit during his “Grand Tour of America,” one of the social high points in history of the young nation he had so fervently fought for. The Alexandria Gazette of October 19, 1824, vividly described his entrance to the city: "Between twelve and one o'clock General LaFayette entered the line from the Potomac Bridge, under a salute of artillery from Capt. Williams's company. Here he was met by General Walter Jones and suite.... LaFayette then entered a splendid barouche, drawn by four fine greys, [and escorted to Alexandria].... The procession entered the town through Columbus Street, went through a part of King into Fayette...to Washington Street. During the passage of the procession, the windows of the houses were filled with ladies, who, as they waved their handkerchiefs, told the General that he was welcome.... About three o'clock, Gen. LaFayette, accompanied by the residue of the procession, passed through the Grand Arch under a national salute of 24 guns.... After Gen. LaFayette had been conducted through the Arch, he passed the line of troops in King Street who were at presented arms. On his arrival at Royal Street, an impressive ceremony occurred which, in sublimity and moral effect, surpasses all: one hundred young girls and one hundred boys from seven to twelve years of age were arrayed in lines extending to the Reception room.... In the reception room [at Clagett's Tavern] the General was met by [Mayor Roberts] who spoke as follows: 'In behalf of the Common council and my fellow citizens, I have the honor to bid you a cordial and affectionate welcome to the town of Alexandria.'" When the ceremony was concluded the Mayor and General Jones conducted him to the house which had been secured for his accommodations at 301 South St. Asaph Street. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10161824Lafayette.jpg | Portrait of Gilbert Motier the Marquis De La Fayette as a Lieutenant General, 1791 (cropped), by Joseph-Desire Court. Portrait located at the Palace of Versailles. | |
| 10/17 | 1932 | 700 South Union Street | Ford Motor Company Plant | Albert Kahn, architect, Art Deco, Ford's Landing | On October 17, 1932, a Ford Motor Company plant employing 225 men opened at the foot of Franklin Street along Alexandria’s waterfront. The structure, designed by Albert Kahn, featured yellow-glazed brick, a saw-tooth roof, and Art Deco elements. In the 1990s, the property was demolished and developed into Ford’s Landing residential community. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10171932FordPlant.jpg | Ford Motor Company. Bill Lebovich, HABS/HAER 1996, Library of Congress. | |
| 10/18 | 1859 | John Brown, militia | On October 18, 1859, troops were dispatched from Alexandria to help quell John Brown’s Raid at Harper’s Ferry. Brown’s plan to capture the Federal Arsenal in that town and initiate an armed slave revolt, that he believed would then spread throughout the South, was thwarted by actions of the local militia and area farmers who were tipped off in advance. However, advance cooperation sand participation in Brown’s plan reached few slaves, and the mass uprising he envisioned did not occur. However, the daring nature and intent of the raid shook Virginians to their core, resulting in intense political stress before the Civil War finally broke out in 1861. |
/uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10181859Milita.jpg | Marines storming the Engine House at Harper's Ferry, Library of Congress. | |||
| 10/18 | 1861 | 400 Lee Street | City Gas Works | John La Mountain, balloon | On October 18, 1861, balloonist John La Mountain launched an aerial reconnaissance balloon from the City Gas Works at 400 North Lee Street, an ascent witnessed by a number of Union officers and his arch rival in developing balloons for military purposes, Thaddeus Lowe. The balloon “passed over a considerable portion of the city [and] was lost to view in the neighborhood of the fortresses and camps which crown the hills on the Western environs of the city.” La Mountain was able to report on Rebel movements west of Alexandria, but was soon shot down by a Union brigade who mistakenly thought it was put aloft by Confederate forces near Falls Church. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10181861CivilWarBalloon.jpg | The War balloon at General M'Dowell's head-quarters preparing for a reconnaissance / sketched by Ed. Pietsch, 1861. Library of Congress. | |
| 10/18 | 1907 | Del Ray, St. Elmo, Town of Potomac | On October 18, 1907, citizens of Del Ray and St. Elmo met to discuss the incorporation of those two communities and the surrounding area as the Town of Potomac. A report recommending incorporation was adopted and copies of the proposed charter were to be printed and distributed. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10181907DelRay.jpg | Map of Alexandria County, Virginia, prepared by Howell & Taylor, 1900 (cropped). Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |||
| 10/19 | 1781 | Oronoco Street | General Cornwallis, George Washington, Yorktown, Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route | On October 19, 1781, after eight years of conflict, British General Lord Charles Cornwallis surrendered to General George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia and the American colonies finally secured their freedom from Great Britain. Failing to achieve a final victory in the northeast or the middle colonies, the British concentrated more of their efforts in the South. In early 1781, a British army led by the turncoat Benedict Arnold took Richmond and Portsmouth and routed the Virginia militia under the Baron von Steuben. Lord Cornwallis arrived with another army in May and insisted that Virginia should be the main theater of war. Major General Sir Henry Clinton refused to send reinforcements to Cornwallis but ordered him to remain to establish a base. As Cornwallis's men dug in at Yorktown, the Americans and French decided to capitalize on their temporary numerical advantage and attack. As the Americans traveled southward before their Yorktown victory, thousands of soldiers camped in a large area just north of Oronoco Street in Alexandria along what is now called the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02131897GWPortrait.jpg | Portrait of George Washington, Gilbert Stewart. | ||
| 10/20 | 1914 | Alexandria Chamber of Commerce | On October 20, 1914, the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce reported the City had 48 manufactories, 39 wholesale houses and 328 retail businesses, with combined business revenues of $30 million. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10201914PortnersBrewery.jpg | Portner’s Brewery. Souvenir Virginia Tercentennial 1607-1907 of Historic Alexandria, Virginia, by Andrew J. Wedderburn (Alexandria, 1907). | |||
| 10/21 | 1669 | Sir William Berkeley, Robert Howson, tobacco inspection station, Hugh West, Margaret B rent, John Alexander | On October 21, 1669, Sir William Berkeley, colonial governor of Virginia, bestowed a 6000-acre land patent in the northern reaches of the colony to a Welsh sea captain named Robert Howson. This tract extended along the Potomac River, from Hunting Creek on the south to the Little Falls on the north, and overlapped the 700 acre plot awarded to Dame Margaret Brent in 1654. Less than a month later, Howson sold the land to Scotsman John Alexander. Eighty years later, a portion of that land would be formally established as the town of Alexandria, at a location just south of the tobacco inspection station operated by Hugh West since 1732. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10211669GovernorWilliamBerkeley.jpg | Portrait of Sir William Berkeley, Governor of Virginia. By Hariott L.T. Montague, ca. 1917, after a painting at Library of Virginia, by Sir Peter Lely, ca. 1663. | |||
| 10/21 | 1907 | 1401 Duke Street | Shiloh Baptist Church | Alexandria Institute, Samuel W. Madden, John F. Parker | On October 21, 1907, the Alexandria Institute opened for admission at Shiloh Baptist Church. Designed to educate adults, the night school was organized and taught by educators, like Samuel W. Madden and John F. Parker, who donated their time to provide instruction in English and other branches of study. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10211907JohnFParker.jpg | John F. Parker, Alexandria Institute. | |
| 10/24 | 1921 | Madison Street, 1111 Belle Pre Way | Belle Pre Glass Co | Fire, milk bottles | On October 24, 1921, the Belle Pre Glass Company plant on Madison Street mysteriously was destroyed by fire, one day before the four acre site was to be sold. Belle Pre Glass, which opened in Alexandria in 1902, was one of the largest makers of milk bottles in the United States until the firm went bankrupt in 1912. The huge building was vacant at the time of its destruction. Belle Pre was located in the northwest section of Alexandria along Henry Street. At the time, the complex employed over 250 people and processed 5,000,000 linear feet of wooden boards annually to construct boxes for the millions of bottles produced. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10241921BellePre.jpg | Belle Pre Glass Company, Madison Street. Souvenir Virginia Tercentennial 1607-1907 of Historic Alexandria, Virginia, by Andrew J. Wedderburn (Alexandria, 1907). | |
| 10/26 | 1955 | 407 North Washington Street | Rezoning | On October 26, 1955, the Alexandria City Council approved the rezoning of a residential section of North Washington Street to allow commercial construction. Before 1955, the area along downtown Alexandria’s main north-south thoroughfare, north of Cameron Street, was lined with elegant, rambling homes built in Georgian and Victorian styles. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10261955NWashingtonStHome.jpg | 407 North Washington Street. Library of Congress. | ||
| 10/27 | 1748 | Hunting Creek Warehouse | Auction, founders, House of Burgesses | On October 27, 1748 a group of citizens petitioned the Virginia House of Burgesses "That a town may be established at Hunting Creek’s Warehouse on Potowmack River." The legislature approved the request of the group, who soon became known as the town founders of Alexandria, and the new town held its first land auctions for property lots on July 14, 1749. One condition of the auction was that a structure had to be built on the property within two years of purchase. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03101874Map1749.jpg | Plan of Alexandria, 1749. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | ||
| 10/28 | 1947 | USS Sea Robin | On October 28, 1947, the submarine U.S.S. Sea Robin docked in Alexandria and received thousands of local visitors. The sub, a Balao-class submarine, was named for the reddish brown, spiny-finned fish that uses its pectoral fins to actually walk along the sea floor. Sea Robin was constructed in 1944 at Kittery, Maine, and served in the South Pacific during World War II. Peacetime service brought Sea Robin to SubRon 6, the submarine port based at Balboa in the Panama Canal Zone. Just five months before arriving in Alexandria, the submarine set out on a simulated war patrol around the South American continent, becoming the first U.S. sub to round Cape Horn. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10281947USSSeaRobin.jpg | USS Sea Robin. | |||
| 10/30 | 1916 | Leon Day, baseball player, Negro League, Ellis Day, glass factory, Baseball Hall of Fame | On October 30, 1916, Leon Day, a star baseball player in the Negro League, was born in Alexandria where his father Ellis worked in a glass factory. Day was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on March 7, 1995, and he died six days later. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10301916LeonDay.jpg | Leon Day, star baseball player in the Negro League. | |||
| 10/31 | 1850 | 301 King Street | City Hall | Alexandria Museum | On October 31, 1850, the Alexandria Council passed a resolution requiring trustees of the Alexandria Museum to hire a “suitable person for preservation and exhibition.” The museum was located in City Hall, which was destroyed by fire in 1871. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10311850CityHall.jpg | Alexandria City Hall. Souvenir Virginia Tercentennial 1607-1907 of Historic Alexandria, Virginia, by Andrew J. Wedderburn (Alexandria, 1907). | |
| 10/31 | 1916 | Wythe Street at Saint Asaph Street | Portner's Brewery | Prohibition | On October 31, 1916, Alexandria’s bars closed down the day before state-wide prohibition went into effect in Virginia. Alexandria was expecting to lose an estimated $12,500 a year from liquor licenses and the closure of Portner’s Brewery resulted in the loss of jobs and revenue. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10201914PortnersBrewery.jpg | Portner’s Brewery. Souvenir Virginia Tercentennial 1607-1907 of Historic Alexandria, Virginia, by Andrew J. Wedderburn (Alexandria, 1907). | |
| 11/01 | 1862 | Wilkes Street | Alexandria National Cemetery | Soldiers' Cemetery, Civil War | On November 1, 1862, the number of U.S. Army burials as the Soldiers’ Cemetery reached 415. Designated by President Abraham Lincoln five months earlier, the military burial ground became known as Alexandria National Cemetery. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/11011862NationalCemetery.jpg | Alexandria National Cemetery. Library of Congress. | |
| 11/01 | 1923 | 101 Calahan Drive | George Washington Masonic National Monument | Groundbreaking, cornerstone, Calvin Coolidge, William H. Taft | After a groundbreaking ceremony 17 months earlier, on November 1, 1923, the cornerstone of the George Washington Masonic Memorial was dedicated in a Masonic ceremony. President Calvin Coolidge, former President and Chief Justice William H. Taft, and numerous other dignitaries performed the ceremony before a crowd of thousands of Freemasons from around the nation. Built on a pay-as-you-go basis, with no money borrowed to finance construction, the Memorial was completed for the Bicentennial of the birth of George Washington. On May 12, 1932, President Herbert Hoover participated in the Memorial’s opening ceremony. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/11011023CalvinCoolidgeCornerstone.jpg | Calvin Coolidge at the dedication of the George Washington Masonic National Monument. Library of Congress. | |
| 11/01 | 1949 | 200 block South Royal Street | Alexandria Armory | Eastern Airlines Flight 537, Lockheed P-38, Potomac Yard | On November 1, 1949, the worst civil air disaster until that time occurred just 300 feet above Alexandria, when Eastern Airlines Flight 537, enroute from Boston to Washington, D.C.’s National Airport, collided with a Lockheed P-38 Lightning military plane that was being test-flown, for ultimate delivery to the government of Bolivia. Due to sudden engine trouble, and human error by the surviving Bolivian pilot of the P-38, that plane severed the fuselage of the passenger flight and fell into the Potomac River. The fuselage of Flight 537 was sliced in the direct center, with the cockpit and front portion of the plane also descending into the shallow river, and the rear half falling in pieces onto Route One and the Potomac Yard rail tracks below. The old Alexandria Armory in the 200 block of South Royal Street served as the impromptu morgue for all 55 victims killed on the Eastern flight. The Armory, now the site of a laughter-filled tot lot, was destroyed by fire just four years later. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/11011949NYTimesCoverNov1aircrash.jpg | Headline about the airline crash, New York Times. | |
| 11/02 | 1909 | 1001 Prince Street | Lee School for Girls | School, fire drill | On November 2, 1909, teachers and students at the new Lee School for Girls on Prince Street participated in a fire drill, directed by the principal. It took two just under two minutes for all to safely evacuate the building. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/11021909LeeSchool.jpg | Lee School for Girls, Alexandria, Va. Historic postcard, around 1911. Courtesy, Alexandria Library, Special Collections. | |
| 11/05 | 1925 | 200 block South Royal Street | Alexandria Armory | Telephone, Telegraph | On November 5, 1925, a local survey indicated that the City of Alexandria had 2,016 telephone and telegraph poles. The tall wooden poles were increasing becoming an eyesore and hazard in the downtown area, as seen in this view of the Alexandria Armory on South Royal Street, taken about that time. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/01091951AlexandriaArmory.jpg | ||
| 11/06 | 1860 | Civil War, Secession, election, President Lincoln, John Bell | On November 6, 1860, in what was one of the most controversial presidential elections in American history, Abraham Lincoln was elected president securing the necessary electoral votes from the industrializing Northern States, almost no support in the agricultural South. Of the four candidates participating in the election, Alexandria’s voters, fearing the destruction of Virginia’s economy and their way of life by either the ever-growing political power of the North, or increasingly radical calls for secession by the South, overwhelmingly supported Constitutional Unionist John Bell with 940 votes. Bell, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives and planter from Tennessee, opposed secession and supported a neutral stance on the issue of slavery. He was trailed by Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge with 619 votes and Democrat Stephen A. Douglas with 138 votes. Lincoln, whose platform opposed the expansion of slavery into new states in the western territories, received only two votes in the city. Immensely unpopular, and viewed with suspicion by most Southerners, Lincoln’s election to the Presidency quickly set the stage for secession, and the American Civil War broke out only months after the election. James W. Jackson, a committed secessionist and the local proprietor of the Marshall House hostelry, suggested that Virginians holding Federal office in the new Lincoln administration should be considered “untrue” to their home state, and that those who voted for Lincoln should “be requested to remove to the free states where they can find sympathizers.” | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/11061860BellCampaignPoster.jpg | Bell and Everett campaign poster, Currier and Ives. Library of Congress. | |||
| 11/06 | 1944 | 500 block North Saint Asaph Street | Alexandria Health Center | Health Department, City Hall | On November 6, 1944, ground was broken for construction of the Alexandria Health Center in the 500 block of North St. Asaph Street. Before this facility was built, local health department staff worked in basement offices at City Hall. The Health Department moved to the West End in 2004. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/11061944HealthDept.jpg | Alexandria Health Department. | |
| 11/09 | 1949 | 400 Second Street | Theodore Ficklin School | Elementary school | On November 9, 1949, the Alexandria officials formally dedicated the new Theodore Ficklin School. The elementary school was located on Second Street between North Pitt and North Royal streets and was named for longtime Alexandria principal who also was also a Confederate officer in the Civil War. The new school cost just over a half million dollars and featured modern amenities, like a water fountain in every classroom. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/11091949FicklinSchool.jpg | Ficklin School. | |
| 11/10 | 1900 | 101 Calahan Drive | Shuter's Hill | Alexandria Golf Club | On November 10, 1900, the Alexandria Golf Club, located on Shuter’s Hill, hosted its first tournament. Golf course designer Robert White of Cincinnati had laid out the links that fall, and the following year a clubhouse was built. Entrance fees at the nine-hole course were $5 for men and $3 for women. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/11101900GolfClub.jpg | Alexandria Golf Club, c. 1907. Souvenir Virginia Tercentennial 1607-1907 of Historic Alexandria, Virginia, by Andrew J. Wedderburn (Alexandria, 1907). | |
| 11/11 | 1946 | Wilkes Street | Alexandria National Cemetery | Sister Elizabeth Kenny, nurse, Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary Soldier | On November 11, 1946, “Sister” Elizabeth Kenny, an acclaimed Australian nurse, visited Alexandria and paid her respects at the Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary soldier. Kenny had no formal training in nursing and gained her knowledge in medical care by volunteering at a small hospital in New South Wales in 1910. Later, the self-appointed nurse worked from her home, riding long distances by horseback to care for those in need at no charge. During the first World War she enlisted in the Australian Nursing Service, and after the war ended, she patented the design of an ambulance stretcher that reduced the shock of transport to patients. With the onset of the polio epidemic in the 1930’s, she promoted the radical concept that muscles of affected patients should be exercised, rather than immobilized, over strong objections from the medical profession. Ultimately her treatments proved successful, leading to the formal establishment of “physical therapy” as a rehabilitative procedure. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/11111946ElizabethKenny.jpg | Sister Kenny with polio patient. | |
| 11/12 | 1861 | Civil War, Mayor McKenzie, fire | During the first year of the Civil War, on November 12, 1861, Alexandria’s Mayor McKenzie negotiated with occupying Union military officers the ability for fire companies in Alexandria to operate without military interference. Previously, Army soldiers constantly thwarted the response of local fire fighters to emergencies in the city, often commandeering equipment needed to put out conflagrations. | (no image used) | ||||
| 11/12 | 1918 | 105 North Union Street | Torpedo Factory Art Center | U.S. Naval Torpedo Station, Mark XIV torpedo, Mark III aircraft torpedo | On November 12, 1918, construction began for the U.S. Naval Torpedo Station, on North Union Street. A contract for its construction had been awarded on October 14, 1918, but work did not begin until the day after Armistice Day (November 11, 1918), which marked the official end of World War I. The first torpedo was produced there in November 1920. Once fully operational, the Torpedo Station was responsible for the manufacture and maintenance of torpedoes for the next five years. Work stopped and the facility served as a munitions storage area until World War II when production on the Mark XIV (a submarine borne torpedo) and the Mark III aircraft torpedo resumed at an intense rate. Over time, ten additional buildings were added to the complex. In 1974 the building was converted into the Torpedo Factory Art Center, one of the nation’s first adaptive reuse projects for a historic building. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/10141918TorpedoAerial.jpg | Aerial view of the Torpedo Factory, 1920s. | |
| 11/13 | 1873 | Electro-Magnetic Telegraph Company, Samuel Morse | On November 13, 1873, the Alexandria City Council granted permission to the Electro-Magnetic Telegraph Company, created in 1845 by inventor Samuel Morse, to run its lines through Alexandria providing instant communication for the first time from New York all the way to Richmond. Morse was a well-respected American painter, who in 1825 was commissioned to do a portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette in Washington, D.C. Halfway through completing the artwork he received word that his wife was seriously ill at their home in New Haven, Connecticut. He left for New England at once, only to find her dead and buried upon his arrival. Thereafter he decided to commit his endeavors to creating a device which could convey important communication instantaneously, without reliance on the daily mail. After witnessing a series of electro-magnetic experiments, he later developed the concept of the single-wire telegraph and the Morse code system of telegraphy. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/11131873TelegraphMap.jpg | Map Exhibiting the Lines of Morse's Electro-Magnetic Telegraph, in Operation, Being Constructed, and Proposed. The Weekly Herald, New York, January 29, 1848. |
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| 11/13 | 1956 | 400 North Pitt Street | Old Police Headquarters | Police Department | On November 13, 1956, Alexandria City Council approved preliminary plans to build new police headquarters at North Pitt and Princess streets. The red brick building with white trim opened two and a half years later, around the corner from the jail. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/11131956PoliceHQ.jpg | Police Department Headquarters, North Pitt and Princess streets. Courtesy, Alexandria Police Department. | |
| 11/14 | 1854 | 2823 King Street | Ivy Hill Cemetery | Cemetery, fire | On November 14, 1854, the Alexandria Common Council prohibited construction of new wooden buildings in certain parts of town. Decades of devastating fires causing huge property damage were routine in Alexandria, and fears of a rapidly spreading fire that would cause a great loss of life were well founded. Sadly, just months later a massive conflagration at existing buildings along King Street killed seven firemen, who were later memorialized with an obelisk at Ivy Hill Cemetery. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/11141854IvyHill.jpg | Ivy Hill Cemetery. | |
| 11/15 | 1873 | King Street, near Royal Street | Sarepta Hall | Wynam the Wizard, John W. Wyman, Jr, magician, ventriloquist, President Lincoln | On November 15, 1873, Wynam the Wizard performed two shows at Sarepta Hall on King Street, wrapping up the last of his Alexandria appearances for that year. Born John W. Wyman, Jr., this magician and ventriloquist had performed for presidents including four appearances at the White House for President Lincoln. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/11151873SareptaHall.jpg | Sarepta Hall. Courtesy Carnegie: Magic Detective. | |
| 11/16 | 1853 | Mayor John Muir | On November, 16, 1853, Mayor John Muir designated that eight days thereafter, on Thursday, November 24, Alexandria would observe a day of Thanksgiving, celebrating the continued growth and unlimited bounty of America and the prosperity of Alexandria in the mid-19th century that rivaled the port with other trading cities in the Mid-Atlantic region. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/11161853Thanksgiving.jpg | Thanksgiving greeting card. | |||
| 11/17 | 1855 | 213-217 King Street | Dowell China Shop | Fire, Ivy Hill Cemetery | On November 17, 1855, a disastrous fire broke out, possibly due to arson, at the Dowell China Shop at 213-217 King Street, a property owned by Henry Baader. One account stated that dynamite had been stored in the basement of the building and that during the fire the three-story structure exploded, with its walls crashing down on seven firemen from Company C. Less than a year later, a memorial obelisk to these fallen firemen was erected by grateful Alexandrians at the entrance to Ivy Hill Cemetery. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03091855IvyHill.jpg | Ivy Hill Cemetery. | |
| 11/17 | 1927 | King Street at South Peyton Street | Tornado, almshouse, Hotel Jackson | On November 17, 1927, a devastating tornado ripped through Alexandria, injuring dozens of people and causing half million dollars in damage. The front façade of Jackson Hotel on King Street was torn away and some displaced families were temporarily sheltered at the almshouse in Del Ray. The tornado sliced through eastern Fairfax County, the western edges of Alexandria, and southeast Arlington, crossing the Potomac River into the nation’s capital near the Naval Air Station. The funnel-shaped cloud then passed over northeast Washington, D.C. into Prince George’s County before dying out. Peak winds of 93 miles per hour were reported and damage to hundreds of buildings in Alexandria and Washington occurred within a period of several minutes. The path of the tornado spread over 17 miles long with a width ranging from 20 to over 300 yards. Witnesses described the sound of the wind as “a huge waterfall.” Fortunately there were no fatalities, but 32 people were injured in the unusual weather event. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/11171927HotelJackson.jpg | Hotel Jackson, Formerly the Old Virginia House. This hotel served African Americans during the Jim Crow era. | ||
| 11/20 | 1662 | John Alexander, Robert Hoswon, Dame Margaret Brent, Old Town, Lord Calvert | On November 20, 1662, seven years before John Alexandria acquired title to a 6,000 acre parcel of adjacent land from Robert Howson, Dame Margaret Brent re-patented the 700 acre tract of land she owned, that included the area today known as Old Town. Brent had immigrated to the Colony Maryland in 1638, with two brothers and one sister, to seek their fortunes after their older brother inherited the Brent family property in England. Now considered America’s first female lawyer, Margaret quickly became the colony’s most influential woman, and was appointed executrix of the estate of her brother-in-law, Lord Calvert, Governor of Maryland. Using her family ancestry and political connections, she soon became a major landowner in the Maryland and Virginia region. But during the late 1640s, her influence in Maryland waned and it became necessary for her to relocate to Virginia in 1650. Although she remained unmarried and childless throughout her life, she shrewdly took all legal steps to secure unchallenged passage of her real estate holding to surviving family members upon her death. The action to re-patent this land tract apparently was done in preparation of her final will signed in 1663. |
/uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/11201662Brent.jpg | Margaret Brent. Detail of conjectural painting by Louis Glanzman. Courtesy, National Geographic Society. | |||
| 11/20 | 1818 | 301 King Street | Alexandria City Hall | Museum, Masonic Lodge | On November 20, 1818, the Alexandria Common Council authorized space in the new City Hall and Market House for an Alexandria Museum. The space, located on the second floor corner of the building overlooking Cameron and North Royal Streets, was operated by the local Masonic Lodge and was the site of many important public receptions overs the years, including one for the Marquis de Lafayette who visited Alexandria for a month in 1824. When the building was destroyed by fire in 1871, many objects perished, but those that could be salvaged were re-installed in the 1872 City Hall in a new, fire-proof room just above the Cameron Street entrance in the new City Hall, marked on the exterior by Masonic symbols. When the George Washington Masonic National Memorial was finished in 1932, the museum relics were moved to that location. |
/uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/11201818CityHall.jpg | Alexandria City Hall. Souvenir Virginia Tercentennial 1607-1907 of Historic Alexandria, Virginia, by Andrew J. Wedderburn (Alexandria, 1907). | |
| 11/21 | 1947 | Alexandria Traffic Board, taxi cabs | On November 21, 1947, the Alexandria Traffic Board lifted the limit of the number of cabs that could operate in the City. Earlier in the year, the Traffic Board had permitted only 150 cabs to operate until the results of a survey could be analyzed. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/11211947AlexandriaCabs.jpg | Taxis in front of the Hotel George Mason, S. Washington Street. | |||
| 11/22 | 1862 | Civil War, Union occupation | By early 1862, with Union troops firmly in control of Alexandria, businesses along King Street catered specifically to the scores of soldiers occupying the town. Rents and inflation soared along the street as hucksters established novelty and trinket shops in business that once provided the daily staples of life, and buildings that once housed one business were frequently sub-divided into 2 or 3. An explosion in the liquor trade ensued, increasing the number of saloons from 3 to 46 within one year. Finally, in response to increasing tension between townspeople and raucous soldiers in search of “liquid courage,” on November 22, Military Governor John Potts Slough ordered a halt to the sale of spirituous drinks to both soldiers and civilians in Alexandria. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/11221862JohnPottsSlough.jpg | John Potts Slough. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |||
| 11/23 | 1792 | 133 North Fairfax Street | Bank of Alexandria | Phillip R. Fendall | On November 23, 1792, the General Assembly incorporated the first bank established in Virginia, the Bank of Alexandria. First located at 305 Cameron Street, a new structure was soon built for the banking house at the southeast corner of Cameron and North Fairfax Streets, a building that still stands today. Phillip R. Fendall was the first president of the bank. | |||
| 11/24 | 1955 | Weather, Potomac Yard | This week in November 1955 saw some interesting weather fluctuations at Alexandria’s Potomac Yard, where weather statistics were recorded at the time. Within a span of just a few days, the temperature ranged from a hot and humid 77 degrees, to a bitter cold of only 11 degrees, topped off by a one inch snowfall! This temperature range was one of the widest ever recorded in the city. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/11241955PotomacYardNARA.JPG | Potomac Yard, 1973. Courtesy, National Archives. | |||
| 11/28 | 1946 | 118 North Washington Street | Christ Church | President Harry Truman, Thanksgiving | On November 28, 1946, President and Mrs. Harry Truman attended Thanksgiving Day worship services at historic Christ Church, just days after issuing a pardon to a turkey at the White House. In his Thanksgiving proclamation that year, he asked that “we have the vision and courage to accept and discharge honorably the responsibilities inherent in our strength by consecrating ourselves to the attainment of a better world.” Presidential visits to Christ Church have been a longstanding tradition for over two centuries, begun on July 4, 1793 when George Washington first attended services there as President of the United States. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/11281946ChristChurch.jpg | Christ Church. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 11/29 | 1761 | 221 King Street | Ramsay House | William Ramsay, mayor | On November 29, 1761, Alexandria citizens elected William Ramsay as their first honorary mayor, and he was known as the first and only “Lord Mayor” of the new town. Ramsay was one of the original town founders and at the first auction of half-acre lots held on July 13, 1749, he purchased two separate lots, the maximum number allowed, which confirmed his faith in the new settlement. The first settlers were required to build a structure on their property within two years, but rather than taking the time to assemble the stores of brick, wood and stone necessary to build, Ramsay barged a house from Dumfries, Virginia, where he had formerly lived, to be placed on lot # 47 at the corner of North Fairfax and King Streets. The building is now the official Alexandria Visitor Center. |
/uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/11291761RamsayHouse.jpg | Ramsay House, 1940s. | |
| 11/29 | 1817 | 134 North Royal Street | Gadsby's Tavern | President James Monroe, City Hotel | On November 29, 1817, President James Monroe visited Alexandria on his way to Fort Washington. He was greeted with a salute fired by an artillery company and then received at the City Hotel, now Gadsby's Tavern, where the mayor welcomed him. Although Monroe was in office less than one year, he won a landslide victory and presided over a time period named the “Era of Good Feelings”, due largely for his efforts to unify the country after the War of 1812. In 1817, he took two long tours to build national trust, and his visits to numerous American towns and cities sought to extend good will and establish a common bond with the local population. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/11291817Monroe.JPG | James Monroe, portrait by Charles Bird King, printed 1817. Library of Congress. | |
| 12/01 | 1742 | Fairfax County, Prince William County | On December 1, 1742, Prince William County divided to establish Fairfax County. When it was founded in 1749, Alexandria was part of Fairfax County. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/03101874Map1749.jpg | Plan of Alexandria, 1749. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |||
| 12/03 | 1789 | District of Columbia, retrocession | On December 3, 1789, the Virginia General Assembly ceded ten square miles of territory in the Northeast portion of the state for the proposed seat of the Federal government. The land, including much of Alexandria and what is now known as Arlington County, was to be joined with a larger parcel across the Potomac River ceded by the State of Maryland, for the new District of Columbia. Although Alexandrians supported the move, expecting the local economy to boom, over time they were disappointed with the initiative and petitioned Congress to reverse the measure. In 1846, Congress finally authorized that the Virginia lands be retroceded to the state the following year. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/12031789WashingtonTopographical1864.jpg | Map of the District of Columbia, 1864. Library of Congress. | |||
| 12/03 | 1951 | Annexation, Fairfax County | On December 3, 1951, the City of Alexandria annexed 7.65 miles of land west of Quaker Lane from Fairfax County, for the sum of $500,000. At the time, the then rural area was sparsely settled, with only several hundred residents and a system of largely unpaved roadways. The annexation doubled the size of Alexandria overnight and allowed for the extension of city services to enable high-density development of the area. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/12031951Annexation.JPG | Growth of Alexandria by Annexation. Office of Historic Alexandria. | |||
| 12/04 | 1971 | 3300 King Street | T.C. Wiliams High School | Football, "Remember the Titans" | On December 4, 1971, the T.C. Williams football team won the state championship, shutting out Andrew Lewis of Salem, 27-0, and capping off an undefeated, 13-win season. The high school team was recalled years later in the film, “Remember the Titans.” | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/12041971Titans.jpg | Titans football team. | |
| 12/07 | 1855 | 201 South Washington Street | The Lyceum | Benjamin Hallowell, Quaker, Lloyd House, educator, public water system | On December 7, 1855, Alexandria educator Benjamin Hallowell gave a lecture on astronomy at The Lyceum on South Washington Street, almost sixteen years to the day after the first lecture was given at the facility. Hallowell, a Quaker abolitionist who lived and taught at Lloyd House, now the headquarters for the Office of Historic Alexandria, was a major force behind the construction of Greek Revival-style Lyceum building in Alexandria, patterned on the popular centers for learning and knowledge in the 19th century that were located in major European and American cities. Hallowell was also well known for designing Alexandria’s first public water system in 1852, and years later accepted the position of President of the University of Maryland. In that role he declined a salary for the position on the condition that the University would discontinue the use of slaves on the campus. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/12071855Hallowell.jpg | Benjamin Hallowell. Illustration from "Autobiography of Benjamin Hallowell," Friends Book Association, Philadelphia, 1883. | |
| 12/08 | 1953 | African American, City government | On December 8, 1953, the Alexandria City Council passed a resolution that “no discrimination be shown in the employment of city government personnel because of race, creed or national origin.” Though the first African American to serve as an Alexandria police officer would not be hired until 1965, African American women had served as crossing guards since 1951. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/12081953CrossingGuards1951.jpg | Crossing Guards, 1951. Courtesy, Alexandria Police Department. | |||
| 12/08 | 1981 | 902 Wythe Street | Alexandria Black History Museum | Robinson Library, Parker-Gray Alumni Association, Alexandria Society for the Preservation of Black Heritage | On December 8, 1981, the Alexandria City Council voted unanimously to turn the former blacks-only library at North Alfred and Wythe streets over to the Parker-Gray Alumni Association and the Alexandria Society for the Preservation of Black Heritage for use as a museum and meeting space. This site became the Alexandria Black History Museum | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/12081981RobinsonLibrary.jpg | Robinson Library. Courtesy, Alexandria Black History Museum. | |
| 12/09 | 1789 | Lottery, street paving, cobblestone | On December 9, 1789, the General Assembly of Virginia authorized Alexandria’s Trustees to raise by lottery a sum, not to exceed £1,500, to be used for paving the most frequently used streets in the town. Although only a few historic cobblestone streets are still visible in Old Town, many other major thoroughfares still retain the original cobblestones hidden under multiple layers of asphalt. The photo was taken in 2010 on Queen Street, in front of the Barrett Branch Library. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09021790PrincessStreetCobbles.jpg | Princess Street. Courtesy, Alexandria Library Special Collections. | |||
| 12/09 | 1839 | 201 North Washington Street | The Lyceum | Education, Library, Civil War hospital, Bicentennial visitor's center | On December 9, 1839, the first lecture program was performed at Alexandria’s newly-built center for adult learning and knowledge, The Lyceum. The Alexandria Lyceum was founded a year earlier by a group of well-educated local men with an interest in improving public educational and cultural opportunities throughout the community. In early 1839, the group joined with the Alexandria Library to construct a new home for both organizations. This historic site has also served as a Civil War hospital ward, a private residence, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Nation’s first Bicentennial Visitor’s Center. Today, as the city’s history museum, the site offers exhibitions, public programs, a museum store, and facility rentals. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/12091839LyceumKvalsvik.jpg | The Lyceum, Alexandria's History Museum. Photo, Eric Kvalsvik, Courtesy Office of Historic Alexandria. | |
| 12/12 | 1971 | 3300 King Street | T.C. Wiliams High School | Gerry Bertier, football, car crash | On December 12, 1971, Gerry Bertier, a captain on the undefeated T.C. Williams High School state championship football team, was critically injured in an early morning car crash on North Beauregard Street. The All-American linebacker suffered a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed below the waist. He later became an effective advocate for people with disabilities and was competitive in sports for people in wheelchairs. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/12121971GerryBertier.jpg | Gerry Bertier, captain of the Titans. Courtesy The Gerry Bertier #42 Foundation. | |
| 12/13 | 1799 | George Washington, Dr. James Craik, final illness | On December 13, 1799, George Washington was exposed to a prolonged period of icy weather, and took cold. Soon after 2 a.m. the following morning he awoke, he experienced a sore throat and labored breath. At daybreak, Alexandria physician, Dr. James Craik, was sent for but the former President became sicker as he stated, "Doctor, I die hard, but I am not afraid to go. I believed, from my first attack, that I should not survive it. My breath cannot last long." After making final arrangements for his and a proper burial, Washington’s final words were, “Tis well.” | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/12161766Washington1772.jpg | Portrait of George Washington, Charles Wilson Peale, 1772. Original portrait at Washington and Lee University. | |||
| 12/13 | 1855 | 515 North Washington Street | Mount Vernon Cotton Mill | industry | On December 13, 1855, the Mount Vernon Cotton Factory on North Washington Street was sold for $26,000. The mill, which employed about 150 people, included a four-story brick factory, picking house and engine house. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/12131855CottonFactory.jpg | The Cotton Factory, on detail of View of Alexandria, J.T. Palmatery, 1853. Courtesy, Alexandria Library, Special Collections. | |
| 12/14 | 1799 | George Washington, death, James Craik | On December 14, 1799, 67 year-old George Washington died at his beloved estate, Mount Vernon. The nation’s first President who, as a young lad assisted in surveying the lands that became Alexandria, had been inspecting his farm on horseback during a heavy rainstorm days earlier. Soon after, he developed a serious throat ailment that resulted in such intense swelling of the glands in his neck he eventually suffocated in a slow, painful death. His wife Martha and faithful friend and doctor James Craik were by his side at his untimely demise. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/12141799GWDeath.jpg | George Washington in His Last Illness, 1800. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. | |||
| 12/16 | 1766 | George Washington, Trustees, surveyor | On December 16, 1766, George Washington was elected a Trustee of the Town of Alexandria. At the time, Washington was a young man of 34 years, but double the age he was when he first help lay out the plan for the city in 1749. Married and owner of the Mount Vernon estate by 1766, Washington was an established and socially prominent planter in Fairfax County, and on paper one of Virginia’s wealthiest citizens. But recognizing the importance of diversification, that year he started switching Mount Vernon's main cash crop away from the exportation of tobacco to Britain to the production of wheat and other grain crops that could be grown, milled and sold within the American colonies. Although he always considered his primary profession as a farmer, Washington’s national leadership skills were honed from his early political experience and service right here in Alexandria. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/12161766Washington1772.jpg | Portrait of George Washington, Charles Wilson Peale, 1772. Original portrait at Washington and Lee University. | |||
| 12/17 | 1983 | 1900 King Street | King Street Metro Station | Metro stations, John Warner, Chuck Robb | On December 17, 1983, the Braddock Road, King Street and Eisenhower Avenue Metro stations opened on the Yellow Line. Passengers traveling from the new stations received free one-way trips for part of the day. At the King Street station, opening festivities included bagpipe music and ribbon cutting by Senators Chuck Robb and John Warner. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/12171983MetroRibbonCutting.jpg | Ribbon cutting for the yellow line to Huntington, 1983. Courtesy, WMATA. | |
| 12/18 | 1900 | Hunting Creek | Southern Railway tracks, accident, Hunting Creek | On December 18, 1900, a cave-in caught several men working on the extension of Southern Railway tracks around the Hunting Creek shoreline. Most escaped serious injury but one suffered a broken collarbone. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/12181900RailroadWorkers.jpg | Laborers working on railroad overpass in Alexandria, c. 1916. Courtesy, National Archives. | ||
| 12/21 | 1961 | Capital Beltway | Capital Beltway, Woodrow Wilson Bridge, opening ceremony, Edith Wilson | In 1944, the Inter-County Metropolitan Freeway was proposed to connect Route 1 near Gum Springs, Virginia, with the Baltimore -Washington Parkway, on a westward route through Tysons Corner. By 1952 the plan was revised to completely encircle the nation’s capital with the Washington Circumferential Highway, crossing the Potomac River at the southern edge of Washington via a proposed Jones Point Bridge. On September 28, 1955, the federal government formally authorized the new highway through Alexandria, with the name shortened to the Capital Beltway. Several months later, the name of the yet-to-be-built bridge was also changed, to honor the centennial of the birth of the nation’s 28th President. On September 25, 1958 ground-breaking ceremonies were held near Jones Point, to start construction of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. The formal opening of the bridge was held on December 21, 1961, with Wilson’s wife Edith expected to attend. However, she died suddenly that very morning, just hours before the dedication ceremony began. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/02221949EdithWilson.jpg | Edith Bolling Galt Wilson. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | ||
| 12/23 | 1783 | 305 Cameron Street | Duvall's Tavern | George Washington | On December 23, 1783, George Washington resigned his military commission at Annapolis, Maryland. He returned to Alexandria on December 31, where his arrival was announced by the firing of thirteen cannons. Afterward the cannon discharge, General Washington was feted by the Town’s leading citizens at a reception held at DuVall’s Tavern, 305 Cameron Street. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/12231783WashingtonResignsCmmission.jpg | General George Washington Resigning His Commission, John Trumbull, c. 1817. This painting hangs in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. | |
| 12/24 | 1953 | Woodrow Wilson Bridge | City Council, bridge, highway, Potomac River | On December 24, 1953, the Alexandria City Council passed a resolution supporting construction of a proposed $20 million bridge at Jones Point, provided that the full cost was paid for by the Federal government. First announced in August 1952, the new Potomac River crossing was initially planned to connect the Shirley Highway at Springfield with Overlook Avenue in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Later the bridge was incorporated within the circumferential highway that circled the District of Columbia after the Interstate Highway System was approved in 1956. The new bridge, renamed the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, opened on December 28, 1961 almost eight years to the day of City Council’s resolution of support. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/09281955WilsonBridge.JPG | Woodrow Wilson Bridge. | ||
| 12/27 | 1864 | Wilkes Street | Alexandria National Cemetery | African American, Civil War, L'Ouverture hospital, Soldiers' Cemetery, Freedmen's Cemetery | On December 27, 1864, African-American soldiers signed a letter of protest regarding the burial of their fallen comrades. The soldiers, patients at L’Ouverture Hospital in Alexandria, opposed the burial of African-American soldiers at Freedmen’s Cemetery rather than at the Soldiers’ Cemetery where white soldiers were buried. Their protest resulted in the bodies of 122 African-American soldiers being removed from Freedmen’s Cemetery and re-interred at what became Alexandria National Cemetery. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/12271864NationalCemetery.jpg | Alexandria National Cemetery. Courtesy, Library of Congress. | |
| 12/27 | 1972 | Detective Conrad Birney, Alexandria Police Department, bank robbery | On December 27, 1972, Detective Conrad Birney of the Alexandria Police Department was shot and killed in the line of duty. He was responding to a bank robbery call in the West End and was shot as the three suspects were exiting the bank. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/12271972ConradBirney.jpg | Detective Conrad Birney. Courtesy, Alexandria Police Department. | |||
| 12/28 | 1961 | Jones Point | Virginia Shipbuilding, Woodrow Wilson Bridge | President Woodrow Wilson | On May 30, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson had the honor of driving the first rivet into the keel of the Gunston Hall, the first ship constructed at the Virginia Shipbuilding Corporation yard at Jones Point. This event took place at almost the very site where decades later, the bridge spanning the Potomac River, connecting Maryland with Alexandria, would be named for President Wilson. The bridge naming was just a coincidence though, as the honor was bestowed in recognition of the 100th birthday of Wilson in 1956, the year that the long-delayed bridge construction at Jones Point was officially announced. The bridge opened to the public on December 28, 1961 the 105th birthday of Wilson. Although his wife, Edith, was scheduled to attend the opening dedication ceremony, she died that very morning. | /uploadedImages/historic/info/ThisDay/05301918WoodrowWilson.jpg | Woodrow Wilson, 1912. Courtesy, Library of Congress. |