On This Day in Alexandria History — “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.” [Historic Alexandria]
Del Ray House & Garden Tour Raises Over $27K for Local Causes — Hundreds attended the tour featuring a dozen homes in the Del Ray neighborhood on Saturday, May 9. Proceeds from the tour will go to the Little Red Caboose restoration between the Mount Vernon Rec Center, Mount Vernon Community School, and Duncan Library, as well as Mount Vernon Community School after-school tutoring, and the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria. [Del Ray Citizens Association news release]
Hundreds of Alexandria City High School seniors are set to graduate next month.
Graduation will be held the morning of Saturday, June 6, at George Mason University’s EagleBank Arena (4400 University Drive) in Fairfax. The processional begins at 8:45 a.m. and the ceremony lasts approximately two hours. This is the second consecutive year that Alexandria City Public Schools will use Tassel, an artificial intelligence company, to provide automated name-reading services.
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One Alexandria man and three Maryland men face felony theft charges after being arrested for allegedly stealing approximately $100,000 in copper piping from the Inova Alexandria Hospital at Landmark construction site, according to a police search warrant affidavit.
Around 9 p.m. Saturday, April 11, a construction supervisor at the site called the Alexandria Police Department to report that the lock on a gate leading into the construction site had been cut and that more than $10,000 in tools had been stolen in the early morning hours of April 5. The construction manager later reported that more than $10,000 in tools had also been stolen the previous night, April 10.
Northern Virginia brewery Crooked Run Fermentation is planning to expand its footprint with a new location in Alexandria’s Del Ray neighborhood.
After filing for a Virginia ABC permit earlier this year, the brewery confirmed it is planning a Crooked Run Brewery Taproom at 2003 Mount Vernon Avenue, the former location of Dolce & Bean. Crooked Run Fermentation, founded in Leesburg in 2013, also has a production facility and taproom in Sterling and a location at D.C.’s Union Market.
Alexandria, VA – In recognition of World Pride Month, the City of Alexandria welcomes back the Annual LGBTQIA+ Pride fair on June 27 from 2 to 6 p.m. at John Carlyle Square Park (300 John Carlyle Street), sponsored by the City of Alexandria, Del Ray Community Partnership, Inova Pride, Kindred Tree Healing Center, and VEG ER for Pets.
Join neighbors, friends, and allies for an afternoon of music, creativity, and community. Enjoy emcee Rayceen Pendarvis, inspiring words from Alexandria leaders, live performances by the Funicular Project, line-dancing, and DJ Thunderbunny. Express yourself at the mobile art lab, grab a bite from local food vendors, and explore more than 100 Pride affirming programs, organizations, and businesses from across Alexandria. Families are invited to experience Drag Story Hour, celebrating imagination, joy, and the freedom to be your authentic self.
The owner of a small historic home in Old Town wants to demolish and replace it with a three-level townhouse.
The Board of Architectural Review will consider the proposal at its meeting June 3. The one-story building at 1126 Prince Street is only 22 feet wide by 40 feet deep, and its use has shifted from residential to commercial and back over the years. The building was constructed in 1830 and was assessed at $117,855 earlier this year. The 1,700-square-foot lot was assessed at $385,951, putting the total property value at just over half a million dollars.
Proposed changes to the base charge for Alexandria’s wastewater customers will be addressed at a public hearing Saturday (May 16).
AlexRenew, which operates the city’s wastewater service, is proposing updates to how its base charge is calculated. The utility proposes calculating the base charge using the monthly water use of a typical household, rather than the current method based on a customer’s meter size. For residential customers, water use of 3,500 gallons would equal one unit. For commercial customers, average usage volume would be converted into units relative to residential customers’ usage to set the base charge.
On This Day in Alexandria History — “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.” [Historic Alexandria]
Worries About Supreme Court Decision on Voting Rights — “The decision significantly narrowed how Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act can be used in redistricting disputes and made it more difficult to challenge maps that dilute minority voting strength. The ruling stopped short of invalidating Section 2 altogether, but critics across Virginia say it represents the most consequential rollback of federal voting rights protections since Shelby County v. Holder, the 2013 ruling that eliminated the federal preclearance system requiring states with histories of discrimination to obtain federal approval before changing election laws.” [Virginia Mercury]
Democrats on Monday filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to halt a Virginia ruling invalidating a ballot measure that would have given their party an additional four winnable U.S. House seats.
The move came after the Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down a constitutional amendment that voters narrowly passed just last month. The 4-3 state court decision found that the Democratic-controlled legislature improperly began the process of placing the amendment on the ballot after early voting had begun in the Virginia’s general election last fall.
Alexandria City Council will consider extending leases to allow nonprofits and other programs to keep operating at its meeting on Tuesday (May 12).
City Council will consider setting a public hearing for Saturday (May 16) on a new five-year lease agreement with nonprofit Casa Chirilagua at 4109 Mount Vernon Avenue in Arlandria, as well as three-year lease extensions for the Alexandria Boxing Club at Charles Houston Recreation Center (901 Wythe Street) and the Child and Family Network Centers at Leonard “Chick” Armstrong Recreation Center (25 West Reed Avenue).
