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Alexandria mayor to present multi-year plan to rename streets named after Confederate soldiers

Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson says that he wants to reignite the conversation over renaming streets named after Confederate heroes of the Civil War.

There are dozens of Alexandria streets named after Confederate soldiers, and Wilson says that it will take a multi-year process to rename the streets.

“Yes, multi-year, to ensure it doesn’t become disruptive to navigation, our residents and businesses,” Wilson said. “I’ll have a specific proposal out soon. Basically a schedule and a process for how we can approach this.”

Forrest Street, for instance, is named after Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Lee Street is named after the family of Confederate commanding Gen. Robert E. Lee.

The proposal will include a public engagement process and renaming suggestions.

Local group Reconstruction Alexandria has struggled to raise community support with petitions for more than a year, in order to get the issue to City Council for review. Efforts to gather signatures for petitions for Lee Street, Janneys Lane and Floyd Street petered out.

“It’s been frustrating,” said volunteer Alex Sprague. “We thought we had the signatures needed for Janneys and Floyd, but turns out some signatures weren’t the actual property owners.”

After getting the go-ahead from then-Governor Ralph Northam in 2020, Alexandria removed the Appomattox statue from the middle of S. Washington Street in Old Town. The statue of a Confederate soldier facing south with crossed arms and his head bowed stood for 131 years before being hauled away by the Daughters of the Confederacy.

Like removing statues, changing street names takes time.

It took four years to rename Jefferson Davis Highway (the president of the Confederacy) to Richmond Highway, starting with the 2015 formation of the city’s Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Confederate Memorials and Street Names.

The Confederate street names date back to 1951, when city officials determined that all streets facing north to south would be named after Confederate members of the military, according to the Washington Post.

Alexandria streets named after Confederate soldiers:

  • Ashby Street — Named after Turner Ashby, Jr., cavalry commander for “Stonewall” Jackson
  • Beauregard Street  — Named after Confederate Gen. Pierre G.T. Beauregard, creator of the Confederate States of America (CSA) battle flag
  • Bragg Street — Named after CSA Gen. Braxton Bragg
  • Breckinridge Place — Named after former U.S. Vice President John Cabell Breckinridge, who later serves as a brigadier general in the CSA
  • Calhoun Avenue — Named after CSA Maj. J. Lawrence Calhoun
  • Chambliss Street — Named after CSA Gen. John Chambliss
  • Dearing Street — Named after James Dearing, the last CSA general to die in battle
  • Donelson Street — Named after CSA Brig. Gen. Daniel Smith Donelson
  • Early Street — Named after CSA Gen. Jubal Early
  • Floyd Street — Named after CSA Brig. Gen. John Buchanan Floyd
  • Forrest Street — Named after CSA Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan
  • French Street — Named after CSA Brig. Gen. Samuel Gibbs French
  • Frost Street — Named after CSA Brig. Gen. Daniel M. Frost
  • Gordon Street –– Named after CSA Gen. John Brown Gordon
  • Hardee Place — Named after CSA Gen. William Joseph Hardee
  • Hume Avenue — Named after Frank Hume, a former CSA spy who settled in Alexandria
  • Imboden Street — Named after CSA Gen. John D. Imboden
  • Iverson Street — Named after CSA Gen. Alfred Iverson
  • Jackson Place — Named after CSA defender James W. Jackson, who killed Union Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth at the Marshall House on May 24, 1861
  • Janneys Lane — Named after CSA Maj. Eli Hamilton Janney
  • Jordan Street — Named after CSA Brig. Gen. Thomas Jordon
  • Kemper Street — Named after CSA soldier James Lawson Kemper
  • Lee Street — Named for the Lee family, after the death of Mrs. Robert E. Lee in 1874
  • Longstreet Lane — Named for CSA Lt. Gen. James Longstreet
  • Maury Lane — Named after CSA Naval Chief Matthew Fontaine Maury, who also had an elementary school named after him in Alexandria
  • Pegram Street — Named after CSA Brig Gen. John Pegram
  • Reynolds Street — Named after Alexander Welch Reynolds or Daniel H. Reynolds, both CSA brigadier generals
  • Quantrell Avenue — Named after CASA Brig. Gen. William Clark Quantrill
  • Rosser Street — Named after CSA Maj. Gen. Thomas L. Rosser
  • Van Dorn Street — Named after CSA Brig. Gen. Earl Van Dorn
  • Wheeler Avenue — Named after CSA Gen. Joseph Wheeler

There are also a number of streets that are possibly named after Confederate soldiers. Those are listed below the jump:

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New Old Town townhouses headed to architectural review proces

After initially submitting plans in January for review, developer Eleventh Street Development LLC is back in the city process to get final approval on a plan to convert a parking garage at 101 Duke Street into a series of townhouses.

According to the application there will be six, four-story townhouses broken up into three buildings. Each unit would also have a two-car garage attached via central alleyway. The demolition of the existing 101 Duke Street parking garage and the new project are scheduled for consideration at the Wednesday, Oct. 6, Board of Architectural Review (BAR) meeting

“The current structure was retrofitted into a parking garage in 1988 and the first level resides within the floodplain,” said Garrett Erdle, principal at Eleventh Street Development, in a letter to the BAR. “The plan is to construct six new townhouses, with attached garages, within the footprint of the current garage.”

There could be some salve for those worried about the loss of parking in Old Town: Hotel Indigo (220 S Union Street) across the street is currently in the process of opening up its underutilized parking garage to the public.

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Where to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in Alexandria

As seen at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Old Town, March 3, 2023 (staff photo by James Cullum)

(Updated 3/17) Tomorrow (Friday) is a celebration of all things Irish: the release of a new Hozier EP.

But for some local bars and the Catholic Church, tomorrow is more notably St. Patrick’s Day. The weekend is set to be marked with celebrations of Irish dancing, music, and drinking.

Celebrations arguably peaked with the St. Patrick’s Day Parade earlier in the month, but several local restaurants and bars have events planned for this weekend.

One of the biggest events is a St. Patrick’s Day Crawl running across two days and hitting up six locations across Old Town. The crawl starts at Village Brauhaus (710 King Street) on Friday and The Light Horse (715 King Street) on Saturday. The Saturday event hits up five locations across Old Town, with both days ending at Chadwicks (203 Strand Street) after 10 p.m. for $7 green tea shooters.

Some other local happenings are listed below.

  • Murphy’s Grand Irish Pub (713 King Street) — The Irish pub is kicking off St. Patrick’s Day celebrations a little early, starting tonight at 7 p.m. with a performance from the Boyle School of Irish Dance. Live music starts at 9 p.m. On Saturday, live music starts at 10 a.m. and on Saturday, the live music starts at 3 p.m.
  • Daniel O’Connell’s Irish Restaurant and Bar (112 King Street) — The Irish restaurant will also feature dance performances from the Boyle School of Irish Dance, kicking off at 8 p.m. (one hour after the school’s performance at Murphy’s). They will perform again at 1:30 and 5:15 p.m. on Friday, followed dance from McGrath Morgan Irish Dancers at 6 p.m. and live music at 9 p.m. Saturday is mostly devoted to rugby, with live music starting at 9 p.m.
  • Osho’s St. Paddy’s Day Bash (1324 King Street) — O’Shaughnessy’s is hosting a St. Patrick’s Day event starting at 5 p.m. on Friday, featuring live music, party favors and green drinks.
  • St. Patricks’ Day Party at Village Brauhaus (710 King Street) — Friday starting at 3 p.m. The event will include Irish music throughout the day and live music starting at 9:30 p.m.
  • Union Street Public House (121 S Union Street) — The American restaurant at 121 South Union Street will open the tap room at 10 a.m. on Friday, followed by the kitchen at 11 a.m. — feature an Irish menu, with Guinness fish and chips, Irish stew and more.
  • Hard Times Cafe (1404 King Street) — Hard Times has specials for St. Patrick’s Day, including corned beef platters and discounts on Irish drinks like Guinness and Jameson all weekend.

A few locations outside of Old Town:

  • St. Patrick’s Day celebration at The Garden (1503 Mount Vernon Avenue) — The Garden will feature live music, beer and whisky on Saturday, March 18.
  • Hops N Shine (3410 Mount Vernon Avenue) — The Arlandria restaurant has St. Paddy’s specials available through the weekend, including discounts on drinks like Guinness and the offensively named Black and Tan. The kitchen specials for the weekend are corned beef grilled cheese and green eggs and ham sandwiches.
  • Shooter McGee’s (5239 Duke Street) — The Landmark-area restaurant has food and drink specials this week, including shepherd’s pie for $18 and corn beef egg rolls for $10. The restaurant will also feature an all-day celebration tomorrow (Friday).
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Memorial services planned in Old Town for local journalist Lee Hernly

Lee and Samuel Hernly (photo courtesy Jay Hernly)

A pair of gatherings are planned for Saturday, Sept. 24, to commemorate the recently deceased founder of local news sites Red Brick Town and Port City Wire: Lee Hernly.

Lee was a pioneer of local journalism in Alexandria, launching the popular hyperlocal blog Red Brick Town in 2006, which eventually grew into the local news site Port City Wire. Lee died suddenly in July from complications from a cerebral hemorrhage.

“We will celebrate Lee’s life on Saturday September 24th, 2022,” Lee’s brother Jay Hernly said. “Lee’s service will be at 11:30 a.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Old Town Alexandria VA.”

Hernly said afterward, everyone is invited to join the family and friends at Union Street Public House for drinks and treats to chat about Lee and mingle.

“We will be there from 1-4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 24,” Jay wrote. “If you can’t make the service, please stop by and see us at Union Street Public House. We will probably be upstairs.”

In lieu of flowers, Jay said they are asking for donations to help Lee’s 14-year-old son Samuel. A GoFundMe has been set up to help secure Samuel’s future education.

“Lee was a generous, giving person who loved his family, loved his community, quiet at times, and could talk your ears off in politics, sports, etc,” Jay wrote. “He was certainly one of a kind.”

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70 local restaurants are participating in Alexandria Restaurant Week

Hungry?

Alexandria’s summer Restaurant Week launched on Friday, August 19, and runs until Sunday, August 28.

There are 70 local restaurants participating all over the city, and diners can choose between $25, $35 and $45 multi-course meals.

The event was organized by Visit Alexandria, which compiled a menu of offerings from participating restaurants.

Cheesetique, for instance, is offering for $35 an appetizer choice of watermelon, feta and quinoa salad or a trip of fresh Chevre truffles, and a number of entrees, including chicken pot pie, shrimp and grits, beef short ribs and creamy black truffle gnocchi.

The following restaurants are participating:

  • 219 Restaurant
  • Ada’s On The River
  • Aldo’s Italian Kitchen
  • Augie’s Mussel House
  • Bastille Brasserie And Bar
  • Blackwall Hitch
  • Brabo Brasserie
  • Bugsy’s Pizza Restaurant & Sports Bar
  • Cafe 44
  • Cafe Pizzaiolo
  • Cedar Knoll
  • Chadwicks
  • Chart House Restaurant
  • Cheesetique
  • City Kitchen
  • Clyde’s at Mark Center
  • Daniel O’Connell’s Irish Restaurant & Pub
  • Del Ray Cafe
  • Delia’s Mediterranean Grill & Brick Oven Pizza
  • Dishes Of India
  • Elo’s Italian Restaurant
  • Evening Star Cafe
  • Gadsby’s Tavern Restaurant
  • Hard Times Cafe
  • Haute Dogs & Fries
  • Hen Quarter
  • Hops N Shine
  • Hummingbird
  • Il Porto
  • King And Rye
  • Kismet Modern Italian
  • Kisso Asian Bistro
  • Laporta’s Restaurant
  • Lena’s Wood-Fired Pizza & Tap
  • Market 2 Market
  • Mason Social
  • The Mount Vernon Inn
  • Murphy’s Irish Pub
  • Myron Mixon’s Pitmaster Barbecue
  • Northside 10
  • Oak Steakhouse
  • Pasara Thai Restaurant
  • Piece Out
  • Pork Barrel BBQ
  • Ramparts Tavern & Grill
  • RedRocks Neapolitan Bistro
  • Rocklands Barbecue & Grilling Company
  • Royal Restaurant
  • RTs Restaurant
  • Rus Uz Alexandria
  • Sonoma Cellar
  • Southside 815
  • Spice Kraft Indian Bistro
  • Sweet Fire Donna’s
  • Taqueria Picoso
  • Tequila & Taco
  • Thai Signature
  • The Light Horse
  • The Majestic
  • The Rub Chicken & Beer
  • The Study
  • The Warehouse
  • Theismann’s Restaurant & Bar
  • Tiki Bar
  • Union Street Public House
  • Urbano 116
  • Vermilion
  • Village Brauhaus
  • Whiskey & Oyster
  • Yunnan By Potomac — A Noodle House
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20 Alexandria restaurants participating in Carpenter’s Shelter Cook-Off Pop-Up

A good cause is around the corner to satisfy your taste buds and conscience.

On August 28, Carpenter’s Shelter will host their biggest summer event — their Cook-off Pop-up at ALX Community (201 N. Union Street). The event will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. and showcases offerings from about 20 area restaurants with proceeds benefiting the nonprofit, which provides temporary housing and support for more than 600 families and individuals every year.

Advance tickets cost $20 for kids and $50 for adults, and at the door cost $25 for kids and $75 for adults.

The Jones Point Band will provide live entertainment, and the evening will include raffles and silent auctions.

Participating restaurants include:

Via Facebook

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Local muralist Patrick Kirwin had to lower his prices, then offers started flooding in

Ever since he was five years old, local muralist Patrick Kirwin has been drawing on walls. The artist behind the Dogs Of Del Ray mural has been busy during the pandemic, and his work is mostly positive.

Kirwin says that’s what his clients want these days.

“I have a younger brother who was pissed at me because I wasn’t doing political work, but I got to be who I am,” Kirwin told ALXnow in a recent interview. “I’m basically optimistic, try to be happy and don’t want to bring more garbage to the world. I want to have something that connects to people. I don’t want to make people angry.”

Kirwin, an Arlington-based artist, has taught drawing and painting courses at The Art league at the Torpedo Factory Art Center for years. He was raised with 12 siblings in Columbus, Ohio, and was sent to art school as a young child after his parents found him drawing on the walls of their home.

“They sent me to art school so I wouldn’t draw on walls, and now I’m back to drawing on walls,” Kirwin said. “I’ve gone full circle.”

Kirwin, who is married and has two children, moved to the area in 1984 to get his master’s at The George Washington University. He also taught at the Corcoran School of Art and Design, the Smithsonian, and the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton.

Kirwin’s work dried up because of the pandemic, prompting him to lower his prices. When he did that, the work started to pour in.

“I had to make cheaper bids,” Kirwin said. “Not real big things, like a 10-foot-by-10-foot outdoor painting in a backyard on Capitol Hill. I really built up a portfolio, and now people working at home and remotely they want something fresh, they want something exciting at home.”

He continued, “I learned to get a job you have to back it up with a lot of work. If someone wants work, I can bomb then with a lot of examples, and that’s important because competition is tight.”

In Alexandria last year, Kirwin also painted a mural in the alleyway of Union Street Public House. In it, George Washington is looking out of a window inside the pub.

“He is such a lively person, and I was able to see the mural day-to-day until it was finished,” Union Street employee Heather Smith said.

Kirwin also recently painted the interior of the new Tiki bar pop-up in Del Ray, and last year unveiled his “Dogs Of Del Ray” mural on the north side of Stomping Ground. The dogs mural, which faces the Pat Miller Neighborhood Square in the heart of Del Ray, showcases more than 100 of the neighborhood’s pooches.

For the time being, Kirwin is back to a massive project — a 30-foot-tall mural outside an apartment building in D.C.

“It will actually be a giant picture of a group of people taking a selfie,” he said. “It will be very, very big with a D.C. backdrop.”

Kirwin welcomes interruptions from people while he’s working.

“I love to talk to folks while I work,” he said. “Don’t be shy. Come and say hi.”

Courtesy images 

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COVID rush prompts New Year’s party cancelations, as some Del Ray eateries scale back operations

A number of New Year’s Eve parties are being voluntarily canceled in Alexandria, and some businesses scaling back their services. All of this, of course, is in response to a dramatic jump in COVID-19 infections over the last month.

According to the Del Ray Business Association, the following businesses have stopped in-person service:

In Old Town, the rising tide of new cases led to the cancelation of First Night Alexandria, the city’s New Year’s Eve celebration.

These businesses have canceled their New Year’s Eve parties:

These New Year’s Eve celebrations are still on:

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Old Town businesses beat Del Ray in controversial softball game

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Amid questionable calls and weather-related issues, Old Town businesses are claiming victory in Wednesday night’s softball battle against Del Ray.

Old Town Team Captain Trae Lamond of Chadwicks said his team won in a text message to ALXnow, and that he put the John Porter Cup in the trunk of his car after everyone scattered to avoid bad weather.

“We won,” Lamond told ALXnow. “The cup is ours.”

The score at the bottom of the fourth inning was 20-14 when storm clouds gathered, the wind picked up and the game was called at Little Simpson Field. The winner was still unclear for hours after the game, as Del Ray cried foul after being pitched a practice safety ball, or sponge ball, the entire first inning.

Old Town scored six runs in the first and Del Ray was scoreless for the first two innings.

Del Ray team captain Bill Blackburn of Pork Barrel BBQ initially said that the game was a no contest, since Old Town got four at-bats and his team only got three. He also said it was strange that the game was called not long after a home run by Del Ray’s Jesse O’Connell.

“The real injustice was for the fans of Alexandria, who lost out on what was shaping up to be the softball game of the century,” Blackburn said. “Del Ray was getting into a groove and was mounting a comeback to make up for the questionable ball issue in the first inning.”

Blackburn conceded after the umpire, Alexandria Sheriff Dana Lawhorne, called it for Old Town in a text to ALXnow.

“Blackburn is complaining because he couldn’t hit the ball over the fence on a little league field,” Lawhorne said, adding that the “sponge ball” incident was beyond his reach. “I don’t provide the balls. I just provide a fair and balanced judgement of the actions of the players.”

As previously reported, Del Ray won the first competition in 2018, Old Town won in 2019 and the contest was postponed in 2020.

The team rosters are below.

Old Town

Del Ray

Batboys

  • Sam Youngblood
  • JoeMonroe Blackburn
  • Lily Youngblood

Courtesy Elijah Walter Griffin Sr/Griffin Vision Photography

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A Dozen Restaurants are Participating in Old Town Oyster Week

Aw, shucks. Oyster fans will be pleased to learn that next week marks the first-ever Old Town Oyster Week.

The event, which runs from October 12-17, was created by the Old Town Business Association and Guinness Beer. Participating restaurants will offer two Guinness products and an assortment of oyster dishes.

The restaurants include:

The event has not gone unnoticed by Del Ray business owner Bill Blackburn, of Pork Barrel BBQ in Del Ray. Blackburn challenged Chadwicks owner Trae Lamond to an oyster eating contest.

“It’s always fun beating Trae, especially when also helping to promote some great Alexandria restaurants and raising money for Alexandria causes,” Blackburn said.

Lamond accepted the challenge.

“I’m gonna shuck him up,” Lamond told ALXnow.

It’s oyster week! In celebration of this I am challenging local punk and Chadwicks owner Trae Lamond to an oyster eating contest to benefit a local charity of his choice. Details and location to be determined.

Posted by Bill Blackburn on Friday, October 9, 2020

Photo via Murphy’s Grand Irish Pub/Facebook

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