history | ALXnow

Alexandria Black History Museum director to lead city’s new African American History division

Published May 9, 2023 at 3:00PM

Audrey Davis, executive director of the Alexandria Black History Museum, speaks at the Walk the Walk 2020 event at Alexandria's African American Heritage Park, August 27, 2020. (Staff photo by James Cullum)

Audrey Davis, executive director of the Alexandria Black History Museum (902 Wythe Street), has been tapped to lead the city’s new African American History division of the Office of Historic Alexandria (OHA).

Davis has been a leader in the city’s efforts to preserve Black history in Alexandria, starting as a part-time curator with the city in 1993. The city has made significant strides in recent years to better present the city’s Black history, from the opening of the Freedom House Museum to guided tours of the Parker-Gray neighborhood.

News

Upcoming free tour explores the hidden history of Alexandria’s Parker-Gray neighborhood

By Vernon Miles

Published May 2, 2023 at 1:45PM

Parker-Gray School (photo via City of Alexandria)

While Alexandria is known for its history, an upcoming free tour later this month will take locals into the underexplored stories of the city’s Parker-Gray neighborhood.

Parker-Gray native Michael Johnson, who recently won the Alexandria Historical Society’s T. Michael Miller award for his work raising awareness of issues with the Douglass Memorial Cemetery, is hosting a tour of the neighborhood on Saturday, May 20, from 10-11 a.m. Johnson will be accompanied by an 80-year-old Parker-Gray resident who can help tell some stories from the neighborhood’s history.

News

Work starts on new Alexandria waterfront ‘Maritime Heritage Center’ celebrating the Age of Sail

By Vernon Miles

Published April 5, 2023 at 11:00AM

Rendering of new Senator John Warner Maritime Heritage Center (image courtesy Spotted MP)

Work has started on a new waterfront destination: the permanent home for the Tall Ship Providence.

A release from Maurisa Potts, founder and CEO of Spotted MP Marketing and Public Relations, said construction is starting this month along the waterfront on infrastructure to support the Senator John Warner Maritime Heritage Center, a floating maritime center being built in Baltimore.

News

Notes: Alexandria named ‘one of the best places to travel’ by Money Magazine

By James Cullum

Published April 3, 2023 at 10:38AM | Updated April 3, 2023 at 10:58AM

It’s a beautiful spring morning in Alexandria!

Today’s weather: Mostly sunny with a high of 72 degrees during the day, and cloudy with a low of 56 degrees tonight.

Opinion

Poll: How should Alexandria handle Confederate-honoring street renaming?

By Vernon Miles

Published March 17, 2023 at 11:15AM | Updated March 17, 2023 at 1:40PM

Forrest Street, named for Nathan Bedford Forrest (image via Google Maps)

As Alexandria moves forward with renaming streets Confederate leaders, the City Council is starting to take a look at some of the practical concerns that brings.

Alexandria City Council member John Chapman went on FOX 5’s DMV Zone yesterday to talk about options the city is looking at for street renaming, though solutions could vary by individual streets.

News

City Council says practical considerations of renaming Confederate-honoring streets needs to be addressed

By Vernon Miles

Published March 15, 2023 at 3:45PM

Forrest Street, named for Nathan Bedford Forrest (image via Google Maps)

For some Alexandrians, the question of renaming streets that currently honor Confederate leaders isn’t “should it change” but “what happens to my address?”

As Alexandria moves through a new renaming process, City Council member Sarah Bagley said the City Council Naming Committee heard from residents at a recent meeting who have practical concerns about how renaming will impact everything from paying bills to getting friends to their house. At a City Council meeting last night, Bagley and other members of the Council provided an update on the street renaming discussion.

News

A look back at the ‘urban renewal’ project that reshaped Old Town

By Vernon Miles

Published March 14, 2023 at 1:50PM

The view from the Alexandria City Hall's clock tower. (Staff photo by James Cullum)

Fights over historic preservation are nothing new in Alexandria, and a recent edition of the city’s This Week in Historic Alexandria offered a look back at one of the controversial projects from the 1960s that shaped Old Town as it’s known today.

This year marks 60 years since Alexandria’s City Council approved the “Gadsby Commercial Urban Renewal Plan” in 1963 — a project that saw the large-scale demolition of much of King Street’s older buildings once construction began in 1965.

News

Alexandria Black History Museum reopening with exhibit on the Black Lives Matter movement

By Vernon Miles

Published February 22, 2023 at 10:45AM

A Black Lives Matter protest on King Street in Old Town on Friday, June 5, 2020. (Staff photo by James Cullum)

The Alexandria Black History Museum (902 Wythe Street) is reopening this weekend with a new exhibit dedicated to Alexandria’s response to the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement.

The new exhibit is called “The Legacy of George Floyd: the Black Lives Remembered Collection.” The formerly virtual exhibit is set to premiere at a reception on Sunday, Feb. 26, from 2-5 p.m.

News

ALXnow’s top stories this week in Alexandria

By Vernon Miles

Published February 3, 2023 at 3:30PM

The base of the Appomattox statue is now located at Bethel Cemetery in the Wilkes Cemetery Complex (staff photo by James Cullum)

The long and tangled history of the Appomattox statue that once stood at the intersection of S. Washington Street and Prince Street took another turn this week as ALXnow learned the base had been installed in a Carlyle-area cemetery.

The statue had been removed in 2020 after years of debate over its presence. While some neighbors have expressed misgivings at the base’s new home above Confederate graves in the Bethel Cemetery not far from historic Black cemeteries, the new location is on private property and the cemetery’s owner said he’d like to see the statue reinstalled there.

News

Old Town residents and business owners cry foul over new George Washington Birthday Parade route

By James Cullum

Published January 31, 2023 at 3:30PM | Updated January 31, 2023 at 5:55PM

The George Washington Masonic National Memorial, as viewed from the King Street metro station (Staff Photo by Jay Westcott)

Updated at 6 p.m. Old Town residents and business owners are up in arms for not being officially notified of a route change for the George Washington Birthday Parade on Feb. 20 (President’s Day).

The parade will shut down large sections of Old Town North and Old Town near the King Street-Old Town Metro station, restricting parking and vehicular access for residents and businesses. The parade will start at 1 p.m. at the intersection of Pendleton Street and Fayette Street, and marchers will walk south down Fayette Street, hang a right on King Street and then end at the foot of the George Washington National Masonic Memorial at King Street and Commonwealth Avenue.

News

Alexandria seeking funding to preserve the oral history of historic black cemetery in Old Town

By Vernon Miles

Published January 19, 2023 at 1:45PM

Douglass Memorial Cemetery following flood damages in 2021 (photo courtesy Michael Johnson)

There are nearly 200 years worth of stories buried at 1421 Wilkes Street.

The site started being used as a burial place for Black Alexandrians in 1827, but was officially established as the Douglass Memorial Cemetery in 1895. The last burial was in 1975.