There are many Alexandria 275th birthday (doesn’t look a day over 200) celebrations this year, but the one on Saturday, July 13, might be the big one.
The party is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Oronoco Bay Park (100 Madison Street) with a fireworks display and music by the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra at 9:30 p.m.
The Alexandria City Council upheld the certificate of appropriateness for a contentious development in Old Town after an appeal was filed by residents claiming that it will be an eyesore that destroys the historic nature of the area.
Council voted 6-1 upholding the certificate of appropriateness approved by the Board of Architectural Review in May, with small conditions.
The Fairfax Resolves were a series of radical resolutions drafted in Alexandria in 1774 that laid the foundation that helped steer Virginia toward revolution.
An event later this month in Market Square celebrates the monumental 250th anniversary of the Fairfax Resolves with a marker dedication, music from the United States Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps, and reenactors portraying George Washington and George Mason.
As part of the 275th birthday celebrations this year, the Office of Historic Alexandria has launched a new exhibit in The Lyceum (201 S. Washington Street) dedicated to an oral history project.
The project is called Mapping Alexandria: Stories of a Changing City. It includes interviews with current and former residents to get first-hand accounts of Alexandria history and how its neighborhoods have evolved over time.
A gathering at Market Square (300 King Street) — once a center of the slave trade — will be filled with music and stories about emancipation and the fight for equality tomorrow.
The Juneteenth celebration is scheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday) at 1:30 p.m. in Market Square.
A unique set of mid-19th century stamps celebrating Alexandria are up for bidding at a New York City auction house this week.
The Robert A Siegel Auction Galleries said in an email that, prior to the first federally issued postage stamps in 1847, local postmasters issued provisional postage stamps for use in their towns. Alexandria was one of 11 cities that issued its own postage between 1845 and the debut of federally issued postage in 1847.
A pair of new plaques honoring the Alexandrians who died in the Vietnam War will be installed and dedicated over the next month around Alexandria.
VFW Post 609, American Legion Post 24, and the Office of Historic Alexandria are memorializing the Alexandrians with a plaque dedication ceremony on Monday, Memorial Day.
It was quite a week in Alexandria.
Hungry? Our top story this week is about Del Ray’s Matt and Tony’s All Day Kitchen + Bar (1501 Mt. Vernon Avenue) making Yelp’s Top 100 Brunch Spots 2024.
Here’s a roundup of all the events, live music, and entertainment happening around Alexandria this weekend; enjoy!
Are you organizing an event? Submit events to ALXnow.
Alexandria’s history with racially restrictive covenants was a major topic during the Zoning for Housing/Housing for All debate last year, and a new interactive map shows the location of those covenants around Alexandria and surrounding localities.
ARLnow reported that the new interactive map comes from researchers at Marymount University. Many of the covenants listed on the map exclude “any person not of the Caucasian race.”
The Office of Historic Alexandria will celebrate Marquis de Lafayette, the acclaimed Hero of Two Worlds, with a concert and lecture marking 200 years since the city first threw its arms open to a hero of both the American and French revolutions.
Lafayette, a French nobleman and military officer, served under George Washington throughout the war and commanded Continental Army troops at the siege of Yorktown. Lafayette was also a prominent voice early in the French revolution, though he was later driven out of the country by more radical factions.
