Alexandria is looking for community feedback on the recognition and demarcation of Black cemetery areas and burial sites at Fort Ward Park.
The park at 4301 West Braddock Road, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, became an African American community after the Civil War. For more than a decade, the city has worked on identifying graves that were part of “The Fort” neighborhood, and made ground-penetrating Radar Surveys in 2009.
The story behind Alexandria’s hand-me-down graduation gown — “Five outstanding T.C. Williams High School students, five prestigious universities and colleges, two on-stage graduation performances – and one graduation gown. What began as an unplanned sharing of a typically once-worn garment has become has become an Alexandria tradition.” [Alex Times]
Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial recognized by African American Civil Rights Network — “Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial is the oldest and first site in Virginia to be added to the network.” [Zebra]
The discovery of the Old Town Armada was an unexpected boon to Alexandria archeologists. But impressive as it is that so much of the three ships have remained intact after centuries underground, recent archeological work has uncovered an interesting detail on one of them.
Somebody screwed up.
The garden wall of the historic Lee-Fendall House (614 Oronoco Street) in Old Town took a beating earlier this week, but support from the local community has helped put the wall on the road to repair.
A few days after announcing that a significant portion of the home’s wall had collapsed, the home has raised $5,005 to help boost repair efforts.
Alexandria’s history with slavery makes Juneteenth a particularly important holiday.
June 19 recognizes the emancipation of slaves in the United States, and the date is expected to soon be a federal holiday, even though Alexandria has recognized it since 2019.
The Alexandria Black History Museum (902 Wythe Street) has just secured a substantial new grant that will help the museum digitize much of its collections.
The museum announced yesterday that it will receive a $243,356 grant from the IMLS Museum Grants for African American History and Culture. The grant will help fund digitization and interpretation for four of the museum’s archival collections.
Alexandria Hospital President Dr. Rina Bansal asks residents to get vaccinated — “A healthy person can get COVID and survive, and if you have already had it, you may still have the antibodies to keep you safe for a period of time. But what about your community? It may not be readily apparent that a family member, friend or neighbor has an underlying health condition that puts them at higher risk for hospitalization or even death from COVID-19. Your choice to not be vaccinated isn’t just putting you at risk, it can impact so many others around you.” [ALXnow]
Historic Building that inspired ‘Mercy Street’ to be private residence, museum offices — “The building was converted into the Mansion House Hotel and served as a Union Hospital during the Civil War. Green and the hospital were depicted in the TV drama series “Mercy Street,” which aired on PBS from 2016-2017. NOVA Parks has owned the property since 1970, using it as office space and leasing the rest of the space to other companies. In 2019, NOVA Parks announced that it was marketing the sale or lease of the building.” [Alexandria Living]
The Alexandria Black History Museum is partnering with Washington Revels Jubilee Voices — a group that preserves local Black traditions through a cappella music, dramatic performances and dance — for a virtual Juneteenth Celebration this weekend.
Juneteenth is a holiday that marks date that slavery was fully abolished in the United States. A virtual program called “Our People: A Juneteenth Story” will premiere on Saturday, June 19, and will include footage of Washington Revels Jubilee Voices at historically significant sites throughout Alexandria presented by the Black History Museum.
The Virginia Theological Seminary’s (VTS) ongoing effort to pay $1.7 million in reparations to the descendants of those enslaved at the school was highlighted this week in the New York Times.
The reparations program was launched in 2019, but the school started to issue payments to more than a dozen families in February.
The city has opened up a little about plans to reshape a former slave trading headquarters in Alexandria into a museum centered around the Black Americans enslaved in early American history.
The reopening of the Freedom House Museum at 1315 Duke Street is planned for this fall — after it was originally planned for opening this spring.
(Updated on 4/16/21) As the city works towards a more inclusive portrayal of its history, part of that also involves an effort to move away from the “George Washington slept here” approach to history.
In a meeting of the Alexandria Historical Restoration and Preservation Commission meeting yesterday, the commission met with preservation architect Purvi Gandhi Irwin to discuss diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in historic preservation. A focus of the discussion was reshaping views of historic preservation front the ground-up that accounts for viewpoints often neglected in preservation.
