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Alexandria Buys Slave Trading Museum, But Looks to Public for Preservation

Published January 7, 2020 at 9:20AM

Franklin and Armfield exhibit in the Freedom House museum (photo via Historic Alexandria/Facebook)

The City of Alexandria has agreed to purchase the Freedom House Museum, an unassuming brick building at 1315 Duke Street that was once the headquarters for the largest domestic slave trading firm in the United States.

The museum is currently a museum about slavery run by the Northern Virginia Urban League, but years after buying and restoring the building in 1996, the Washington Post reported that upkeep for the building was too costly for an organization that primarily uses its funding for scholarships and civil rights issues.

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Morning Notes

By ALXnow.com

Published January 6, 2020 at 8:00AM | Updated January 6, 2020 at 11:21PM

The plaza at City Hall in Old Town (Staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Local Donut Shop Donating to Charity — “Sugar Shack Donuts & Coffee of Alexandria, 804 N. Henry Street, is celebrating five years of yummy donuts, smiles and positive community engagement in January by donating five cents for every donut sold to ACT for Alexandria, the community foundation.” [Zebra]

History Museum Hosting Documentary Screening — “On Sunday, January 12, 2020, the Alexandria Black History Museum will premiere a free screening at 3 p.m. of the new documentary exploring Alexandria segregation. A very special collection of dollhouses depict Alexandria segregation in ‘Our Alexandria’ the new documentary by Emmy award-winning local filmmaker, Robin Hamilton.” [Zebra]

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News Outlets Continue to Confuse Parts of Fairfax County for Alexandria

By Vernon Miles

Published January 3, 2020 at 11:30AM | Updated January 3, 2020 at 2:12PM

Fairfax County seal at the Huntington Metro station in Fairfax (Staff photo by Sloane)

The confusion over what constitutes Alexandria continues as news outlets continue identifying areas of Mount Vernon, Fairfax County, as Alexandria.

The Washington Post tweeted about a fatal shooting on Dec. 20 that took place on Sausalito Place in the Mount Vernon area of Fairfax. In the tweet, the Washington Post said the person was fatally shot in Alexandria, Virginia, reigniting an old debate over whether or not to refer to the area south of the borders of the City of Alexandria as “Alexandria.”

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Herman Boone, Coach of the ‘Remember the Titans’ Football Team, Dies

By Vernon Miles

Published December 18, 2019 at 3:20PM | Updated December 18, 2019 at 4:25PM

(Updated at 4:25 p.m.) Herman Boone, the T.C. Williams High School football head coach for the school’s 1971 state championship-winning team, has died at 84 years old.

Boone was famously memorialized in the 2000 biographical film Remember the Titans, where he was played by Denzel Washington. The film dramatizes the Titans’ famous 13-0 season after Alexandria’s high schools were integrated.

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Future of Controversial Confederate Statue Unclear After Latest Crash

By Vernon Miles

Published December 16, 2019 at 4:25PM

"Appomattox," the Confederate statue at Washington St. and Prince St. in Old Town, after being hit by a car over the weekend (Staff photo by Jay Westcott)

A driver in Alexandria may have inadvertently contributed to a long-running fight to get the Appomattox statue commemorating Confederate soldiers removed from its pedestal.

Someone crashed into the statue at the intersection of S. Washington Street and Prince Street this weekend, Alexandria police confirmed to ALXnow.

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Lawsuit Over Former Supreme Court Justice’s Old Town Home Dismissed

By Vernon Miles

Published December 10, 2019 at 3:15PM

619 S. Lee Street (staff photo by Vernon Miles)

A lawsuit to try to prevent the owners of a late-18th century home in Old Town from demolishing parts of the historic property has been thrown out, but the plaintiff in the case has filed an appeal.

The house at 619 S. Lee Street has been owned by various local dignitaries over the years, from former mayor and editor of the Alexandria Gazette-Packet Edgar Snowden to Hugo Black, a member of the Supreme Court from 1937 to 1971. Black notably wrote the majority opinion in a decision justifying the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII, filibustered an anti-lynching bill while a U.S. senator, and was at one point a member of the KKK.

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Petrified Ham, Kid-Friendly Charm and Other Alexandria Restaurant Profiles in New Book

By Vernon Miles

Published December 6, 2019 at 3:15PM

Historic marker for the Fitzgerald Warehouse, later a tavern and Seaport Inn (staff photo by Vernon Miles)

Before it was a Starbucks, before it was the Seaport Inn, the restaurant at the corner of King and S. Union Street was a bawdy little tavern with a petrified pig.

As early as 1893, records refer to the location as Brill’s Restaurant, and local newspaper reports from a year later detail a curious incident with a slab of ham. These details, and others about local Alexandria restaurants, are featured in a new book by local journalist Hope Nelson called Classic Restaurants of Alexandria.

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Committee Established to Research Lynchings in Alexandria’s History

By Vernon Miles

Published November 25, 2019 at 3:35PM

Memorial post for victims of Alexandria lynchings (photo via City of Alexandria)

Officially, there are two lynchings in Alexandria’s history, but a new investigation by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) hopes to discover whether there were more that went unrecorded.

The two documented lynchings were of Joseph McCoy in 1897 and Benjamin Thomas in 1899. At a meeting of the Equal Justice Initiative on Nov. 16, Audrey Davis, director of Alexandria’s Black History Museum, said that one of the seven committees in EJI’s Alexandria branch is dedicated to conducting research to “find out if there were any other lynchings in Alexandria we’re not aware of.”

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Upcoming Meeting to Showcase New Upgrades to Fort Ward Park

By Vernon Miles

Published November 21, 2019 at 12:45PM

Fort Ward (photo via Visit Alexandria)

The City is planning to host a meeting to gather feedback on its plans to revitalize the Fort Ward Museum and Park.

The Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities is scheduled to hold a community meeting about Fort Ward Park on Wednesday, Dec. 11, at 7 p.m. in near St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes Middle School (4401 W. Braddock Road).

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EXCLUSIVE: First Look at the Next Waterfront Art Project Replacing ‘Mirror Mirror’

By Vernon Miles

Published November 20, 2019 at 1:50PM

Olalekan Jeyifous' concept proposal for Site/See: New Views in Old Town, 2020 (image courtesy Office of the Arts)

The new art project coming to Waterfront Park (1 Prince Street) next year will feature a series of silhouettes representing the city’s history of slavery.

The concept renderings from artist Olalekan Jeyifous feature four three-dimensional silhouettes, each roughly 11 feet tall, with industrial imagery carved into the bodies. The figures will face out towards the river. The ground of the plaza will be covered with a pattern referencing African-American quilting — mixing traditional symbols with ones that represent industries from the city’s past — like an armory and rail tracks.

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Morning Notes

By ALXnow.com

Published November 20, 2019 at 8:00AM

Shopping in Old Town (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

City Phone Service Restored — The City of Alexandria’s non-emergency phone lines are working again after service was restored Tuesday night. A cut to a fiber optic line caused the outage, a city spokeswoman said. [Twitter/@AlexandriaVAGov]

House With George Washington Connection on Airbnb — “George Washington may have slept here, and now so could you… in the heart of Old Town Alexandria in Virginia, where a house that once belonged to the first U.S. president is available to rent. The George of Old Town is a 6000-square-foot townhouse on Cameron Street, and it is available on Airbnb.” [WTOP]