The Freedom House Museum reopened last Thursday following over a year of exterior renovations to restore the building’s pre-Civil War facade.
Alexandria leaders cut the ribbon on the renovations during a ceremony Saturday afternoon, where Mayor Alyia Gaskins said the museum — formerly a site where slave traders trafficked tens of thousands of enslaved peoples — serves as a declaration that the city will not forget its history.
“We will make sure that we create spaces for all to learn about the horrors of the racism and the trauma and the terror of slavery,” Gaskins said. “But, we will also make a commitment to tell the story in another way, to tell the story in ways that make sure that we tell about the resilience and the perseverance and the hope and the brilliance and the beauty of Black people.”
Exterior renovations at 1315 Duke Street began in June 2024. The Office of Historic Alexandria (OHA) was guided in the project by a lengthy historic structures report and worked alongside contractor Oak Grove Restoration Company.
The project included the following work:
- Sealed the exterior building envelope
- Modified the current front roofline to a side gable roof
- Returned the second entryway to the front façade
- Adjusted the west elevation window openings to be consistent with Civil War-era photographs
- Spot repointed the brick
- Renewed windows, woodwork and siding
The next phase of the project will renovate the interior of the building “to make the interior spaces accessible to all.”
The building was the headquarters for five successive slave dealing firms between 1828 and 1861, including Franklin and Armfield, one of the largest domestic slave trading firms in the country. The building was a slave trafficking hub that forcibly shipped thousands of Black men, women and children around the country.
Today, the museum is home to three floors of historical exhibits that tell the stories of enslaved people in the region and throughout Virginia, in addition to spotlighting Black historical figures’ lives and impact in Alexandria and beyond.
The top floor is home to an art exhibit featuring paintings that depict sites of slavery, worship and education by the late D.C. artist Sherry Zvares Sanabria,
Alexandria bought the building in 2020 for $1.8 million from the Northern Virginia Urban League. In 2018, the city started running the museum and gave NVUL a $63,000 interest-free loan for upgrades, following concerns that the building was falling into disrepair.
Exterior renovations were funded by private donations, state funding and a Save America’s Treasures grant from the Historic Preservation Fund, administered by the National Park Service, according to OHA.
