Lably
Skip to content

Alexandria, Virginia

Independent city in Virginia, US

  • 43 min read
  • 13 chapters

Related on Lably

Through New Deal, World War II and Nonprofit organization

Lab · Class 8–10India's Freedom StruggleLab · Class 8National Movement

Alexandria was established in 1749 and incorporated as a town in 1779. In its early decades, Alexandria's port was one of the largest in the country, prospering from the trade of agricultural goods and slaves. Ceded to the District of Columbia in 1801, economic troubles led to Alexandria's retrocession back to Virginia in 1847. Alexandria was re-chartered as a city in 1852 and became independent of Alexandria County in 1870. The 19th century saw Alexandria become a manufacturing and railway hub as its port declined in importance. The city significantly expanded its borders in the 20th century, particularly with the annexation of the town of Potomac and its surroundings in 1930 and an unincorporated portion of Fairfax County in 1952, both of which roughly doubled Alexandria's land area.

The highest-income independent city in Virginia, Alexandria is heavily influenced by its proximity to the national capital. The expansion of the U.S. federal government during the New Deal and World War II, coupled with postwar deindustrialization, helped transform Alexandria into a community for federal employees. The city's largest employers include the U.S. Department of Defense's Mark Center and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Numerous nonprofit organizations and private corporations are also headquartered in Alexandria. Tourism is a major industry, particularly in the city's traditional core of Old Town. Old Town hosts the Alexandria Historic District, the third historic district in the United States.

History

Early history

According to archaeologists' estimates, a succession of indigenous peoples began to occupy the Chesapeake and Tidewater region about 3,000 to 10,000 years ago. Various Algonquian-speaking peoples inhabited the lands in the Potomac River drainage area since at least the early 14th century.

In the summer of 1608, English settler John Smith explored the Potomac River and came into contact with the Patawomeck (loosely affiliated with the Powhatan) and Doeg tribes who lived on the Virginia side, as well as on Theodore Roosevelt Island, and the Piscataway (also known as the Conoy), who resided on the Maryland side. On this visit, Smith recorded the presence of a settlement called Assaomeck near the south bank of what is now Hunting Creek.

Colonial era

On October 21, 1669, a patent granted 6,000 acres (24 km2) to Robert Howsing for transporting 120 people to the Colony of Virginia; this land would eventually become Alexandria. Virginia's comprehensive Tobacco Inspection Law of 1730 mandated that all tobacco grown in the colony must be brought to locally designated public warehouses for inspection before sale. One of the sites designated for a warehouse on the upper Potomac River was at the mouth of Hunting Creek. After the original site south of the creek was deemed "very inconvenient", the warehouse was built at West's Point to the north. This land had been given to John Alexander and Hugh West by John's father Robert Alexander. Robert's cousin, Philip Alexander, owned a 500 acres (2.0 km2) estate to the south, which was bounded by Hunting Creek, Hooff's Run, the Potomac River, and the future Cameron Street.

In 1742, Fairfax County was split from Prince William County. Local planters and merchants, including Thomas Fairfax and Lawrence Washington, sought to establish a port for the new county. At the opening of Virginia's 1748–49 legislative session, the House of Burgesses received a petition on November 1, 1748 that stated that the "inhabitants of Fairfax (Co.) praying that a town may be established at Hunting Creek Warehouse on Potowmack River". Lawrence's younger brother George Washington, an aspiring surveyor, made a sketch of the shoreline touting the advantages of the tobacco warehouse site. Opponents of the warehouse site submitted a petition asking for the small settlement of Cameron along Hunting Creek to be selected instead. Both of these original petitions were rejected by the House of Burgesses.

John West, Fairfax County surveyor, laid-out 60 acres (assisted by 17-year-old George Washington).On May 2, 1749, the House of Burgesses approved the river location and ordered "Mr. Washington do go up with a Message to the Council and acquaint them that this House have agreed to the Amendments titled An Act for erecting a Town at Hunting Creek Warehouse, in the County of Fairfax". A "Public Vendue" (auction) was advertised for July, and the county surveyor laid out street lanes and town lots. The auction was conducted on July 13–14, 1749. The Fairfax County Court began meeting in Alexandria's Market Square in 1752.

Alexandria is named in honor of the early owner of much of the land, Scotsman John Alexander. This was likely chosen to try to win the support of the Alexander family. If so, the effort failed, as Philip Alexander endorsed the Cameron site. The city government further connects the name to the Egyptian city of Alexandria, which would have appealed to the "classically educated elites of the day". An alternative designation for the town was "Belhaven", with the first known use of the name being a 1749 plat entitled "A Plan of Alexandria now Belhaven". The name was intended to honor Scottish anti-unionist John Hamilton, 2nd Lord Belhaven and Stenton, as "patriotic" Scottish merchants were active along the Potomac at the time. The name Belhaven was used in official lotteries to raise money for a church and market house. Though the alternative name did not find lasting success, some maps continued to label the town as Belhaven as late as 1783.

In March 1755, Edward Braddock arrived in Alexandria with a force of about 1400 British regulars and 450 colonial troops as he prepared for operations against the French during the French and Indian War. There, he hosted a meeting with the governors of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York at Carlyle House to discuss the war. His army subsequently departed Alexandria for an expedition against Fort Duquesne that ended in Braddock's defeat and death against a French and Native American force.

American Revolution

In 1774, the British closure of Boston Harbor prompted pro-Boston Alexandrians, including John Carlyle, to establish a committee of correspondence. On July 18 of that year, George Washington, George Mason, and other residents of Fairfax County met at Alexandria's Market Square to issue the Fairfax Resolves, which called for a congress of colonial representatives and a boycott of British goods. After the American Revolutionary War began in 1775, Alexandria remained sympathetic towards the revolutionaries, supplying the colonial military with troops and purging local Loyalists. The town was "virtually unscathed" by combat, but nonetheless was a hub of military activity, hosting a Hessian prisoner of war camp, numerous fortifications to defend against British attack, and a smallpox vaccination center for the Southern Department. The sale of grain and other foodstuffs to revolutionary troops and their French backers provided a significant boost to Alexandria's economy.

The revolutionary government of Virginia began chartering and re-chartering many of its communities amidst the conflict. Under this effort, Alexandria was formally incorporated as a town in December 1779. The town's trustees were replaced by directly elected officials, including a six-man common council as well as a Court of Hustings consisting of a mayor, a recorder, and four aldermen.

1779 also saw Virginia designate Alexandria as an international port of entry with its own customs system. As the war came to a conclusion, Alexandria's export of flour and tobacco greatly increased. Trade with Europe, which was the destination of about half of the town's exports, was reestablished, while the West Indies served as another major customer of Alexandrian goods. A decline in tobacco production caused economic contraction in the late 1780s, but trade rapidly recovered in the 1790s. Alexandria was the dominant port along the Potomac by 1790 and was the seventh-largest port in the United States by 1796.

In March 1785, commissioners from Virginia and Maryland met in Alexandria to discuss the commercial relations of the two states, finishing their business at Mount Vernon. The Mount Vernon Conference concluded on March 28 with an agreement for freedom of trade and freedom of navigation of the Potomac River. The Maryland legislature, in ratifying this agreement on November 22, proposed a conference among representatives from all the states to consider the adoption of definite commercial regulations. This led to the calling of the Annapolis Convention of 1786, which in turn led to the calling of the Federal Convention of 1787.

As part of the District of Columbia

As the United States began planning for the creation of a new federal capital city, Virginia passed an act on December 3, 1789 that approved the cession of up to 10 square miles of territory to the proposed capital. The Residence Act of 1790 authorized the creation of a federal capital along the Potomac River, with its exact borders to be determined by George Washington. Washington insisted upon Alexandria's inclusion in the new city, which was approved in an amendment to the act in 1791, though the amendment also stipulated that the federal government be based in the territory ceded by Maryland. Oliver Wolcott Jr. stated that Washington privately favored Alexandria as the seat of government, but did not press the matter due to concerns that his personal ties to the town would create the appearance of impropriety. The first and southernmost boundary marker of the capital was erected at Alexandria's Jones Point on April 15, 1791. Ahead of Alexandria's expected cession, the Fairfax County Court moved to Fairfax City in April 1800.

The District of Columbia was organized under the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801, formally splitting Alexandria from Virginia and placing it within the new Alexandria County alongside the remainder of Virginia's cession. With their inclusion in the new capital, Alexandrians lost Virginia state citizenship as well as the right to vote in federal elections. Alexandria continued to operate under Virginia law until 1804, when Congress granted a new charter for the town that abolished the positions of recorder and alderman, expanded the common council to 16 members, and divided the town into four wards.

In 1814, during the War of 1812, the British military carried out a successful raid on Alexandria, which surrendered without a fight. In order to avoid the town's destruction, twenty-two merchant ships and large quantities of flour, tobacco, cotton, wine, and sugar were handed over by Alexandria's municipal authorities to the British.

Alexandria's economy stagnated with a decline in Northern Virginia's agricultural output, and the slave trade became increasingly important as Alexandria sought to supply the cotton industry of the Deep South. Even as "observers perceived the downward trend of Alexandria's relative economic power", Alexandria grew to become the country's largest center of slave trading by the 1830s. From 1828 to 1836, Alexandria was home to the Franklin & Armfield Slave Market, one of the largest slave trading companies in the United States. By the 1830s, they were sending more than 1,000 slaves annually from Alexandria to their Natchez, Mississippi, New Orleans, and later Texas markets to help meet the demand for slaves in Mississippi and nearby states.

As discontent with the District of Columbia grew south of the Potomac, a movement emerged that called for Alexandria County to be retroceded to Virginia. Amidst economic troubles, many in Alexandria felt neglected by Congress, which Alexandrians had no say in due to the disenfranchisement of District residents. As the Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Canal spurred development on the north side of the Potomac, Alexandria invested heavily into its own canal to provide a direct connection to the C&O Canal's terminus at Georgetown, which failed to provide the desired economic benefits despite the steep cost. Meanwhile, Georgetown's port emerged as a major rival to Alexandria's. Alexandria was also ineligible to host federal buildings under the 1791 amendment to the Residence Act. Further, proposals to abolish the slave trade in the District would have devastated one of Alexandria's major industries. Pro-slavery factions in Virginia likewise wanted the land to be returned to provide the state legislature with an additional two members that would likely favor slavery.

On July 9, 1846, Congress agreed to hold a referendum in Alexandria County on the issue of retrocession. On September 1 and 2, 763 voted in favor of retrocession while 222 opposed it. President James K. Polk accepted the results on September 7, and Virginia formally assumed control over the land on March 13, 1847. Alexandria was re-chartered as a city in 1852.

Late 19th century

Alexandria's port, the ninth-largest in the nation in 1847, remained a valuable asset, but the town sought to diversify its economy with an industrialization effort after leaving the District. Despite its financial burdens, the Alexandria Canal helped provide coal and raw materials that were useful for the development of industry. Having returned to Virginia, Alexandria was also no longer subject to the financial regulations that Congress imposed upon the District. Alexandria soon became a significant railway hub, beginning with the founding of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad in 1848 and continuing with the Manassas Gap Railroad in 1850 and the Alexandria, Loudoun, & Hampshire Railroad in 1854. The manufacturing industry expanded as numerous machine shops and foundries were established, and by 1850, Alexandria's richest man was a manufacturer rather than a merchant. Alexandria's Whig leadership, which had dominated local politics since the 1830s, also made significant investments in public works during this period, greatly improving its infrastructure.

In the 1860 presidential election, Alexandria supported Constitutional Union Party candidate John Bell. As talk of secession grew in early 1861, Alexandria continued to support the Union, sending Unionist George William Brent as its representative to a Virginia convention on secession in February. After the Civil War began in earnest with the Battle of Fort Sumter, Alexandria rapidly came to oppose remaining in the Union. On May 23, 958 Alexandrians voted to approve Virginia's secession, while 106 voted against. The following day, Union troops landed at the base of Cameron Street, hoping to secure the city's rail network and port. Shortly after landing, Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth of the New York Fire Zouaves removed a large Confederate flag from the roof of the Marshall House, for which he was shot and killed by proprietor James W. Jackson. One of Ellsworth's soldiers, Francis E. Brownell, immediately killed Jackson. The deaths of Ellsworth and Jackson were widely publicized, and both men became martyrs for their respective sides.

Alexandria was the subject of the longest Union occupation of any settlement in the country during the Civil War, remaining under military control for the duration of the conflict. The city became a major logistical hub for the Army of the Potomac, with many buildings seized for supply depots and medical centers. Fort Ward, one of a ring of forts built by the Union army for the defense of Washington, D.C., is located inside the boundaries of present-day Alexandria. There were five military prisons in the city, the largest being the Washington Street Military Prison. The war caused a steep increase in the city's black population due to the arrival of thousands of escaped slaves, designated "contrabands" to avoid returning them to their masters. The Restored Government of Virginia, the Unionist rival to Virginia's secessionist government, was headquartered in Alexandria from August 1863 until May 1865 after its previous stronghold became the new state of West Virginia.

As Reconstruction began, Alexandria's population was roughly half black. With local Unionists and Republican carpetbaggers helping shape policy under military protection, these black residents experienced a brief period of enhanced rights. In 1869, Virginia was readmitted to the union with a new state constitution. Federal troops withdrew from the city on January 26, 1870, restoring civilian control. Alexandria subsequently became an independent city distinct from Alexandria County, as Virginia's new constitution stipulated that any city of at least 10,000 people would be independent. The city's black population, aligned with the local Republicans, gained the right to vote with the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment. The Conservative Party emerged as a serious rival to the Republicans, and the Conservative candidate won a narrow victory in the first post-war mayoral race on May 26, 1870. Nonetheless, that election also saw the first black man elected to city council, and a Republican was elected mayor in 1872. By the mid-1870s, however, the Democratic Party came to dominate city politics, pushing the Republicans and their African American supporters to the political fringe. The implementation of Jim Crow laws reversed many of the gains that black people had made after the war.

Alexandria's economy struggled throughout much of the late 19th century. The Civil War had burdened the city with large numbers of refugees and numerous ruined structures, including its port, but debt from pre-war investments into railroads and canals limited its ability to fund recovery efforts. 1873 saw a milestone for transportation in the city with the opening of its first horse-drawn streetcar in July, but the Panic of 1873 further harmed the city's economy. An 1881 essay in Scribner's Monthly described Alexandria as "dead commercially". The city's history of wooden shipbuilding came to an end around 1883 due to the expense of producing fittings elsewhere and delivering them to Alexandria. The Alexandria Canal brought in record amounts of coal, but its continuous failure to attain desired levels of profitability resulted in its permanent closure in 1887. Even as many East Coast cities experienced surges in immigration, Alexandria's population growth was negligible in the 1870s and 1880s, and the city had fallen far behind regional peers like Washington and Baltimore. The 1880s did see "modern conveniences" come to Alexandria, including telephone service in 1881 and electricity in 1889. The first electric streetcars arrived in Alexandria in 1892, fueling the growth of suburbs to the north and west of the city.

In the waning years of the 19th century, Alexandria suffered its two documented lynchings. The first, in 1897, was Joseph H. McCoy and the second, in 1899, was Benjamin Thomas. Both were Black male teenagers accused, but never convicted, of assaulting young white girls that were known to them. They were both kidnapped from jail and hanged by mobs.

20th century

The early 1900s were a prosperous time for Alexandria's manufacturing industry, with Lynchburg being the only city in Virginia to experience a greater increase in production. Glass was among the city's most important products, with the Virginia Glass Company, the Alexandria Glass Company, Old Dominion Glass Company, and the Belle Pre Bottle Company emerging as prominent businesses in this sector. Other key products included fertilizer, beer, and leather. Most businesses were relatively small, with the business occupying the first floor of a building and the owner and family living above.

In 1915, Alexandria annexed territory west of the city from Fairfax and Alexandria Counties, including the neighborhoods of Rosemont, Eisenhower East and Carlyle, and Shuter's Hill. Alexandria Union Station, established in 1905 to consolidate the city's passenger rail stations, was within the annexed land. Shuter's Hill soon hosted the George Washington National Masonic Memorial, which opened in 1932.

America's need for vessels in World War I led to the establishment of the Virginia Shipbuilding Corporation in 1918, a massive shipyard at Jones Point. President Woodrow Wilson visited the shipyard on May 30, 1918 to drive the first rivet into the yard's first keel to be laid down, the SS Gunston Hall. While the yard was expected to employ thousands of men for the construction of a dozen ships, the war ended before any could be deployed. The shipyard was largely abandoned in the early 1920s after legal investigations were launched into its owner, businessman and fraudster Charles W. Morse.

In 1930, Alexandria doubled in size by again annexing portions of Fairfax and Alexandria Counties, the latter of which had changed its name to Arlington County in 1920. The annexed land was bounded by the Little River Turnpike/Duke Street to the south, Quaker Lane to the west, and Four Mile Run to the north. This included the incorporated town of Potomac within Arlington County, a streetcar suburb that was formed in 1908 from the residential neighborhoods of Del Ray and St. Elmo. These areas housed many workers of Potomac Yard, one of the largest rail yards on the East Coast.

On August 28, 1939, African-American lawyer and Alexandria native Samuel Wilbert Tucker organized a sit-in at the city's library to protest its policy of racial segregation. This was among the first sit-in protests against segregation in the United States, establishing what would become a key tactic of the civil rights movement. The Robert Robinson Library, intended for the city's black population, opened the following year. The new library was converted into the Alexandria Black History Museum after desegregation.

Urban renewal in Alexandria began in 1939 as the city sought to carry out the slum clearance provisions of the Housing Act of 1937. As part of this policy, multiple black or mixed-race neighborhoods were demolished and replaced with segregated public housing developments. In 1946, part of Alexandria's "Old Town" core was designated the Alexandria Historic District, the third historic district in the United States. Many buildings in this district were demolished in the 1960s as part of the urban renewal effort, leading to the emergence of a strong historic preservation movement that called for the protection of the city's old structures. Alexandria's final urban renewal project was completed in 1984.

The New Deal and World War II brought large numbers of new residents to Alexandria as the federal government expanded. After the war, the city's old maritime and industrial economy faltered as the rise of large container ships rendered small river ports obsolete. As Alexandria's manufacturing base largely died out, the city sought to replace it with tourism, redeveloping its previously industrial waterfront into a recreational hub. Though Alexandria did attract some corporate offices, the city largely became a residential community for government employees.

In October 1950, Alexandria filed a lawsuit to annex 7.65 square miles of Fairfax County, stating that the city needed room to expand and would be better equipped to provide utilities for the land's residents than the county. The suit was approved by the Supreme Court of Virginia on December 3, 1951. When the annexation took effect on January 1, 1952, Alexandria's land area again roughly doubled. The annexed territory was the site of the Virginia Theological Seminary, established in 1823 by William Holland Wilmer, Francis Scott Key, and other prominent Episcopalians. The land was "sparsely populated", however, hosting only 11,000 residents. The annexation was swiftly followed by the massive development of both single-family homes as well as large apartment buildings. The post-annexation development brought many new streets to the area, and the city passed an ordinance in 1953 that stipulated that new north-south streets should be named for Confederate military officers.

For much of the 20th century, Alexandria was politically dominated by conservative, segregationist Southern Democrats. By the time of the civil rights era, Alexandria's ruling Democrats were aligned with the staunchly white supremacist U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd and his political machine, which championed "massive resistance" to desegregation. T.C. Williams, superintendent of Alexandria Public Schools for thirty years, consistently opposed school integration, and Alexandria threatened to shut down its school system entirely in 1956 under the massive resistance campaign.

After Brown v. Board of Education, Alexandria reluctantly accepted 14 black students into previously all-white schools on February 10, 1959. Williams continued to resist integration until his retirement in 1963, while his successor John Albohm "cautiously" continued the integration process. Alexandria's city council voted to desegregate all public facilities in May 1963. In the fall of 1965, the city assigned students to local neighborhood schools regardless of race. In 1971, Alexandria enacted a "K-6, 2, 2, 2 plan" in an attempt to racially "balance" the student population throughout the city's public schools to better reflect its racial makeup. Students were assigned to schools in grade-based groups, beginning with kindergarten through sixth grade, then seventh and eighth, then freshman and sophomore classes, and finally junior and senior classes. That same year, Herman Boone joined T.C. Williams High School, which all junior and senior students had been reassigned to, and lead the football team to a 13–0 season, a state championship, and a national championship runner-up, which was the basis for the 2000 film Remember the Titans. School integration triggered significant white flight, which intensified after the federal government ordered Alexandria to finalize its integration of elementary schools in 1973.

As many conservatives left the city in response to desegregation in the 1960s and 1970s, they were replaced by more liberal-minded young professionals and retirees. Conservative Democratic influence in Alexandria collapsed in 1971, paving the way for a city government that included more progressive Democrats as well as moderate Republicans. In 1973, Nora Lamborne and Beverly Beidler became the first women elected to city council. By 1982, Alexandria had more elected Republicans than any other city in the state. In 1991, Patricia Ticer became the first woman to be elected mayor.

On December 28, 1961, the original Woodrow Wilson Bridge opened as part of the Capital Beltway, connecting Alexandria with Oxon Hill, Maryland. On July 1, 1969, Alexandria agreed to have the proposed Washington Metro expand into the city. After extensive delays, the King Street, Braddock Road, and Eisenhower Avenue stations opened as Metro's first three stations in Alexandria on December 17, 1983. To reduce its reliance on the Metrobus network, Alexandria opened its own bus transit system, DASH, on March 12, 1984. Metro's Van Dorn Street station opened in 1991.

Changes in railroad technology reduced the utility of Potomac Yard as a rail hub. Alexandria 20/20, a joint venture between the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad and CSX, announced in September 1988 that it would be pursuing plans to redevelop the railyard into a mixed-use community. The project, which was intended to be built over the course of 30 years, aimed to be the "largest ever development" in Alexandria's history. The site was an unsuccessful contender for a new Washington Redskins stadium in 1992. A strip mall opened in Potomac Yard in 1997, which was intended to only last for 20 years until the mixed-use housing and office development could materialize.

21st century

The city repealed its policy of naming new north-south streets for Confederate officers in 2014. In 2019, the name of U.S. Route 1 in Alexandria was changed from Jefferson Davis Highway to Richmond Highway. Amidst the George Floyd protests, support grew for renaming Alexandria's T. C. Williams High School and Matthew Maury Elementary School, which were named for a segregationist school superintendent and a Confederate pro-slavery activist, respectively. The school board unanimously voted to rename both schools in November 2020, with the high school becoming Alexandria City High School and Maury Elementary becoming Naomi L. Brooks Elementary School on July 1, 2021. In 2023, Mayor Justin Wilson proposed renaming streets named for Confederates, beginning a phased process by which three to five streets would be renamed per phase.

In May 2023, a Metro station opened at Potomac Yard, roughly 30 years after such a station was first proposed for the redeveloped community. By that time, some housing had been built in addition to the existing retail, but the neighborhood was "clearly still under development", with full development not expected for several years or decades. In December of that year, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin and Monumental Sports & Entertainment founder Ted Leonsis announced plans to develop a 70-acre area in Potomac Yard that would have featured a new arena for the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards. The proposal failed in March 2024 after it did not advance in the Virginia General Assembly, with Monumental instead keeping its teams in Washington, D.C. An "Innovation Campus" for Virginia Tech opened at Potomac Yard in January 2025.

Sign in to keep reading

12 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

More in Earth science

Climate changeHuman-caused changes to climate on EarthKöppen climate classificationClimate classification systemIndian subcontinentPhysiographical region in South AsiaLimestoneType of sedimentary rockTropical cycloneRapidly rotating storm systemPleistoceneFirst epoch of the Quaternary Period