This weekend marks the 105th anniversary of the Alexandria Torpedo Factory’s ironic origins.
As told in the Office of Historic Alexandria’s This Week in Historic Alexandria newsletter, the contract for constructing the U.S. Naval Torpedo Station was awarded on Oct. 14, 1918. The United States was embroiled in the First World War, but work on the building wouldn’t begin until the day after the war ended.
Good Friday morning, Alexandria!
☀️ Today’s weather: The forecast predicts a sunny day with a high temperature near 70 degrees, accompanied by a gentle northeast wind at 5 to 7 mph. As nighttime approaches, expect an increase in cloudiness and a low temperature around 51 degrees, with a light east wind.
The Eisenhower Avenue-Mill Road project had one of the most bizarre approvals in recent city history — a project nobody on the City Council wanted but was too expensive to cancel.
Changes implemented earlier this year on Eisenhower Avenue were notably out of date, widening a roadway and creating a T-intersection at a time when the city is usually doing the opposite, but the City would have to pay back grant money already spent on the project if it were canceled.
(Updated 10/13) Chris Harvey is retiring and hopes to sell his hardware store in Del Ray as-is before the end of the year. If that doesn’t happen, he plans on selling all his merchandise at deeply discounted rates.
Chris and his brother Gary Harvey opened Executive Lock & Key Service at 2003 Mount Vernon Avenue in the mid 1990s. Chris runs the business now and Gary says he’s been trying to get his brother to retire for years.
From Old Town Oyster Week to Paws in the Park, there’s something for everyone happening around Alexandria this weekend.
Here’s a look at what’s happening for events, live music, and entertainment, enjoy!
Say hello to Bobby who is up for adoption at the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria!
This 1-year-old male tuxedo kitty is perfect in every way and looking for a special place to call home. Bobby has a large personality, according to AWLA spokesperson Erin Shackelford.
Del Ray’s BBQ scene could be getting a little bigger soon.
A plan to boost the size of outdoor smokehouse Hi/Fi Tex-Mex BBQ (2000 Mount Vernon Avenue) in Del Ray, in the backyard of Evening Star Cafe, is heading to the City Council at a meeting on Saturday, Oct. 14.
The City of Alexandria spent $1.8 million on its Taylor Run and Strawberry Run restoration projects and, at a meeting earlier this week, Mayor Justin Wilson said the city has virtually nothing to show for it.
That $1.8 million went into the project before shovels ever hit the dirt. The plan was to combat erosion and improve the flow of the waterway, but the city’s design attracted considerable pushback from some local environmental activists and city watchdogs who said the plans could do more harm than good to the stream. Critics also noted that pollution levels in the stream were being calculated based on modeling rather than testing in the actual waterways.
Good Thursday morning, Alexandria!
☀️ Today’s weather: The weather forecast predicts a mostly sunny day with a high temperature near 74 degrees and a calm wind shifting south at approximately 5 mph in the afternoon. Thursday night will be partly cloudy with a low temperature of about 53 degrees accompanied by a light north breeze.
Alexandria’s City Council is taking its anti-panhandling ordinance off the books, but city leaders said at a meeting last night the actual impact of the change should be minimal.
City Attorney Joanna Anderson noted that the panhandling change is part of an update to bring obsolete sections of the city code in line with evolving case law.
Alexandria parents are up in arms over a staffing crisis within Alexandria City Public Schools.
Kelly Organek says that her ninth-grade son at Alexandria City High School’s Minnie Howard campus hasn’t had a geometry teacher since school started in August and that he only recently got a new biology teacher.
