Old Town Alexandria was founded in 1749, and buildings from its first century still stand within a few blocks of King Street. This guide follows that history in order, from the town's founding through the Revolution, the slave trade, the Civil War and the creation of one of the country's first historic districts, and then lists the museums and landmarks where you can see it. The dates come from the City of Alexandria's history timeline, published by the Office of Historic Alexandria, and the hours and admission from each site's own page, checked on October 1, 2026.
Before the Town
About a thousand years ago, Native Americans set up seasonal campsites in what is now Alexandria, including at Jones Point, to hunt and gather in the marshland along the river. In 1669 the Scottish merchant John Alexander bought part of a land grant that included the future town's site from a Welsh ship captain, for "six thousand pounds of Tobacco and Cask," as the City's timeline puts it.
Old Town Alexandria History: The Town on the Potomac, 1749
In 1748 a teenaged George Washington, then a surveyor, helped draw a plan of the site. The next year Virginia's colonial government gave a group of merchants and planters permission to establish a town called Alexandria, and the first lots were sold at auction on July 14 and 15, 1749. John Carlyle, a merchant and one of the town's founders, finished his stone house on what is now North Fairfax Street in 1753; two years later the British general Edward Braddock made it his headquarters during the French and Indian War.
Revolution and a Federal City
In 1774, colonists angry at British taxation met at the courthouse, on the site of today's City Hall, and approved George Mason's Fairfax Resolves, which the City's timeline calls a precursor to the Declaration of Independence. The same year the town founded its first volunteer fire company, the Friendship Fire Company. Christ Church, where Washington kept a family pew, dates to 1773. Before his presidency Washington also kept a town house on Cameron Street and did business in the town's taverns.
The taverns themselves survive. In 1785 the tavernkeeper John Wise built a tavern on Royal Street, and in 1792 the City Tavern and Hotel opened next to it; both took the name of John Gadsby, who ran them from 1796 to 1808. In 1792, too, Edward Stabler opened an apothecary on South Fairfax Street, which his descendants in the Leadbeater family ran until 1933.
In 1791 the first and southernmost cornerstone of the new federal capital was set at Jones Point, with help from the surveyor and mathematician Benjamin Banneker, and from 1801 the town was part of the District of Columbia. It was a busy port: by 1797, the timeline notes, Alexandria had become the seventh largest port in the country. On August 29, 1814, less than a week after British troops burned Washington, the town's mayor surrendered Alexandria to the British. In 1846 the town's voters chose to return from the District of Columbia to Virginia, as the Alexandria Gazette reported that September; the City's timeline lists the retrocession under 1847 and records that white Alexandrians voted for it, partly over concerns about abolitionists' efforts to end slavery in the federal district.
The Slave Trade on Duke Street
In 1828 slave traders moved into a house at the upper end of Duke Street and turned it into a private slave pen. From sites like 1315 Duke Street, the timeline says, traders made Alexandria a major center of the domestic slave trade, trafficking tens of thousands of people to the cotton and sugar states of the Deep South. That building, the Franklin and Armfield slave pen, run by one of the largest slave trading companies in the country, is now the City's Freedom House Museum and a National Historic Landmark.
The Civil War
The day after Virginia voted to secede, on May 24, 1861, the U.S. Army seized Alexandria for its importance to the defense of Washington, and the town stayed under military control for the rest of the war. It became a headquarters, a transportation center and a hospital base, and a destination for people fleeing slavery. The Contrabands and Freedmen's Cemetery was established in 1864; a memorial opened on its site in 2014.
The Twentieth Century
The day after the armistice ending World War I was signed, construction began on the Naval Torpedo Station on the waterfront, which built and repaired torpedoes until the end of World War II. In 1939 the attorney Samuel W. Tucker led five young African Americans in a sit-in at the segregated Barrett Library on Queen Street, one of the country's first sit-ins; the Robert Robinson Library, built in response, is now the Alexandria Black History Museum.
In 1946 the City created the nation's third regulated historic district to protect its historic downtown, which the timeline notes is now known as "Old Town." In 1974 the old torpedo station reopened as the Torpedo Factory Art Center, and The Lyceum became the nation's first Bicentennial Center. Between 2015 and 2018, archaeologists excavated the remains of four ships along the waterfront at the foot of Duke Street.
Where to See It: Museums and Landmarks
- Carlyle House Historic Park, 121 N. Fairfax St. John Carlyle's 1753 stone house. $8 for adults, $3 for ages 6 to 17 and free under 5; closed Wednesdays. Tours start on the hour, the last at 3 p.m. (NOVA Parks).
- Gadsby's Tavern Museum, 134 N. Royal St. The 1785 tavern and the 1792 City Tavern and Hotel. $5 for adults and $3 for ages 5 to 12; guided tours are $8. Closed Wednesdays all year, and Mondays and Tuesdays from November to mid-March (City of Alexandria).
- Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum, 105-107 S. Fairfax St. The family apothecary of 1792 to 1933, with its herbal botanicals, hand-blown glass and ledgers; a National Historic Landmark. $5 for adults and $3 for ages 5 to 12. Closed Tuesdays all year, and Mondays from November to mid-March (City of Alexandria).
- Christ Church, 118 N. Washington St. An Episcopal church dating to 1773, with the pew where George Washington worshipped (Christ Church).
- Alexandria History Museum at The Lyceum, 201 S. Washington St. Built in 1839 for the Alexandria Lyceum, later a Civil War hospital, now the City's history museum. Open Thursday to Sunday; $3 (City of Alexandria).
- Freedom House Museum, 1315 Duke St. The surviving building of the Duke Street slave-trading complex. Open Thursday to Sunday; $5 for adults and $3 for ages 5 to 12 (City of Alexandria).
- Alexandria Black History Museum, 902 Wythe St. In the former Robert Robinson Library. Open Thursday to Sunday; $3 (City of Alexandria).
- Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial, 1001 S. Washington St. Honors more than 1,700 people of African descent buried there during and just after the Civil War. Open dawn to dusk (City of Alexandria).
- Friendship Firehouse Museum, 107 S. Alfred St. The 1855 firehouse of the town's first volunteer fire company, with its 1851 Rodgers Suction Engine. Open one Saturday a month; $3 (City of Alexandria).
- Alexandria Archaeology Museum, 105 N. Union St., unit 327, on the third floor of the Torpedo Factory Art Center. Open Tuesday to Sunday; free (City of Alexandria).
- Lee-Fendall House Museum & Garden, at Oronoco and Washington streets. Built in 1785 by Philip Richard Fendall on a lot bought from his cousin, Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee; the labor leader John L. Lewis later made it his home. House and garden open Wednesday to Sunday (Lee-Fendall House).
- George Washington Masonic National Memorial, 101 Callahan Dr., on Shuter's Hill west of the King Street Metro. Open Thursday through Monday, with guided tours included in admission (the Memorial).
Hours at the City's museums change with the season, so check the City's museum hours and admission page before you go. The Key to the City museum pass is sold at the Historic Alexandria museums and the Alexandria Visitor Center. For a broader look at what the area offers, see our complete local guide to Old Town Alexandria. Planning a visit around the history? Our Old Town Alexandria day trip itinerary maps out how to fit the highlights into a single day. For the rest of a day in Old Town, see our things to do and Plan Your Visit.