Qualla: Alexandria: George Washington's Hometown on the Potomac

Alexandria: George Washington's Hometown on the Potomac: Introduction

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dmadeo, CC BY-SA 3.0. Scottish merchants laid out Alexandria in 1749, naming the new tobacco port for the Alexander family who owned the land. George Washington helped survey the original streets as a teenage apprentice; he later worshipped at Christ Church, attended balls at Gadsby's Tavern, and served as a trustee. The town prospered shipping tobacco down the Potomac, then suffered Union occupation during the Civil War - Robert E. Lee's hometown taken by Federal troops on the first day of hostilities. The cobblestone streets survived, the Georgian townhouses survived, and when the capital expanded after World War II, Alexandria's Old Town became an improbable village preserved within the Washington suburbs - 4,000 buildings predating 1900, gas-style lamps illuminating brick sidewalks, the Potomac still flowing past the waterfront where colonial ships once loaded tobacco for London.

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Image: Dmadeo | CC BY-SA 3.0

Alexandria: George Washington's Hometown on the Potomac: Washington's Town

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ben Schumin, CC BY-SA 2.5. George Washington's connection to Alexandria runs deeper than mere residence. He surveyed the town's boundaries in 1749, aged seventeen. He purchased a pew at Christ Church in 1773 (still marked with his nameplate). He drilled Virginia militia on Market Square before the Revoluti...

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Image: Ben Schumin | CC BY-SA 2.5

Alexandria: George Washington's Hometown on the Potomac: The Slave Trade's Shadow

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The original uploader was Ser Amantio di Nicolao at English Wikipedia., CC BY 3.0. Alexandria was among the largest slave trading markets in the antebellum South. The firm of Franklin and Armfield shipped an estimated 1,000 enslaved people per year from their Duke Street headquarters to New Orleans and Natchez between 1828 and 1836. The building still stands - ...

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Image: The original uploader was Ser Amantio di Nicolao at English Wikipedia. | CC BY 3.0

Alexandria: George Washington's Hometown on the Potomac: Old Town's Preservation

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 3.0. Alexandria's historic survival was not inevitable. In the early 20th century, Old Town was a declining industrial district, its colonial buildings subdivided into tenements or demolished for warehouses. The Old and Historic Alexandria District, established in 1946, was among the ...

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Image: Ad Meskens | CC BY-SA 3.0

Alexandria: George Washington's Hometown on the Potomac: Potomac Waterfront

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bobco85, CC0. The Potomac waterfront defined Alexandria's colonial purpose - ships loading tobacco for England, later grain and manufactured goods bound for Baltimore and beyond. The wharves fell into disuse as commerce moved to railroad hubs, but recent decades brought new life. Water taxis n...

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Image: Bobco85 | CC0

Alexandria: George Washington's Hometown on the Potomac: Just Outside the Capital

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ben Schumin, CC BY-SA 2.5. Reagan National Airport (DCA) lies three miles north in Arlington; the Blue and Yellow Metro lines connect King Street-Old Town station to the capital in minutes. Yet Old Town maintains its distinct identity - red brick sidewalks and gas-style lamps rather than federal marble. Fr...

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Image: Ben Schumin | CC BY-SA 2.5