Alexandria Audio Walking Tour

Highlights

• 
  George Washington Masonic National Memorial

  You're arriving at Alexandria, Virginia's memorial to George Washington, just outside Washington, D.C. — home of Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22, where he once served as charter Master. Look up: the tower, fashioned after the ancient Lighthouse of Ostia in Ostia Antica (or Rome), rises 333 feet tall from Shooter’s Hill, also known as Shuter’s Hill, at 101 Callahan Drive.

• 
  Hollensbury Spite House

  Seven feet six inches wide, the Hollensbury Spite House at 523 Queen Street squeezes into the alley in front of you, a home many call the skinniest house in the United States. From this spot you can take in its slim facade and imagine the reasons it exists: John Hollensbury reportedly built it in 1830 to stop people loitering in the alley adjoining his house and to keep wagon-wheel hubs from chipping his exterior walls.

• 
  Old Town Alexandria

  Look east toward the Potomac, your gateway into Alexandria. This is one of the original settlements of the city of Alexandria, located about eight miles from the United States Capitol and lying across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. It once formed the far southern part of D.C. and was the oldest district of the capital until it was ceded back to Virginia in 1846.

• 
  Franklin and Armfield Office

  Your visit brings you to 1315 Duke Street, where Isaac Franklin and John Armfield once ran the largest slave-trading firm in the nation. Built around 1810–1820 as a private residence by Robert Young, a brigadier general, this building was later converted to the offices of the largest slave trading firm in the United States, started in 1828 by Isaac Franklin and John Armfield.

• 
  Gadsby's Tavern Museum

  Gadsby's Tavern occupies 134 and 138 North Royal Street at the corner of Cameron Street in Old Town Alexandria: a c.1785 tavern, the 1792 City Tavern and Hotel, and an 1878 hotel addition tacked on later. This place preserves a c.1785 tavern alongside the 1792 City Tavern and Hotel, with an 1878 hotel addition tacked on as the city grew.

All 22 stops

• Torpedo Factory Art Center (Old Town)

  Picture a naval munitions plant swapped for artist studios: that transformation happened in 1974, right here on the Potomac in Old Town, Alexandria.

• Old Town Alexandria (Old Town Alexandria)

  Look east toward the Potomac, your gateway into Alexandria.

• Alexandria Historic District (Old Town)

  Old Town and its neighboring blocks make up the Alexandria Historic District, a National Historic Landmark District, and you are inside it now.

• Gadsby's Tavern Museum (Old Town)

  Gadsby's Tavern occupies 134 and 138 North Royal Street at the corner of Cameron Street in Old Town Alexandria: a c.1785 tavern, the 1792 City…

• Carlyle House (Old Town)

  Your walk down North Fairfax Street ends at Carlyle House, a stone Georgian mansion raised by indentured and enslaved labor.

• Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Shop (Alexandria)

  This corner shop in Alexandria houses the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Shop/Museum, its shelves still stocked with history.

• Lloyd House (Old Town)

  Picture Georgian brick rising at the corner of North Washington and Queen Street: the Wise‑Hooe‑Lloyd House, once host to George Washington.

• Alexandria City Hall (Alexandria)

  In 1871, an extensive fire had just swept through the old Market House and City Hall you now see rebuilt by architect Adolph Cluss.

• Bank of Alexandria (Alexandria Historic District)

  Built in 1807, the Bank of Alexandria at 133 North Fairfax Street shows you its three-story main block and two-story east wing.

• Hollensbury Spite House (Alexandria)

  Seven feet six inches wide, the Hollensbury Spite House at 523 Queen Street squeezes into the alley in front of you, a home many call…

• Bayne-Fowle House (Alexandria)

  William Bayne, an Alexandria-based commission merchant, had the Bayne–Fowle House at 811 Prince Street built in 1854, and its masonry front now rises ahead of…

• Athenaeum (Alexandria)

  Greek Revival lines mark the Athenaeum, a gallery of fine arts and performance venue at Lee and Prince streets in Alexandria.

• Lee-Fendall House (Old Town Alexandria)

  Thirty-seven members of the Lee family called 614 Oronoco Street home, and the Lee–Fendall House now welcomes you.

• Robert E. Lee Boyhood Home (Old Town Alexandria)

  John Potts, Jr., built the Potts-Fitzhugh House at 607 Oronoco Street in 1795, and you may know it better as the Robert E. Lee Boyhood…

• Basilica of St. Mary (Old Town Alexandria)

  Facing you now rises the Basilica of Saint Mary, a Catholic minor basilica and parish church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington here in…

• Old Presbyterian Meeting House (Old Town)

  Look along South Fairfax Street and you'll find the plain-style facade of the Old Presbyterian Meeting House rising quietly at number 321.

• St. Paul's Episcopal Church (Old Town)

  Latrobe's Gothic St. Paul's Episcopal Church rises in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, right where you have stopped.

• Franklin and Armfield Office (Old Town)

  Your visit brings you to 1315 Duke Street, where Isaac Franklin and John Armfield once ran the largest slave-trading firm in the nation.

• Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery (Alexandria)

  At 1001 S. Washington St. in Alexandria, Virginia, you find quiet ground once set apart for the newly free.

• Alexandria Black History Museum (Alexandria)

  Here at 902 Wythe St. sits the Alexandria Black History Museum, an Alexandria-operated institution housed in the former Robert Robinson Library.

• Lyceum (Alexandria)

  You are standing before the Lyceum, a historic museum and event space in Alexandria, Virginia.

• George Washington Masonic National Memorial (Alexandria)

  You're arriving at Alexandria, Virginia's memorial to George Washington, just outside Washington, D.C. — home of Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22, where he once served as…

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