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Individuals, predominately males, congregated in the taverns for social life, gaming, food and often excessive drink. There is virtually no opposition to the head of the ticket and none whatever to the other candidates for city office. Alexandria's plan is no exception. Recent industries completed here are the large tannery of Mssrs. It would appear that the name was chosen to gain the support of the Alexanders in the struggle for the town charter. While no railroad lines serviced Alexandria, Baltimore had been allowed to siphon off the lucrative trade of the Shenandoah Valley by constructing the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad through Virginia to Winchester. Colonel Fitzgerald served as mayor and collector of the port, but perhaps his most lasting contribution was his organization of fundraising for Alexandria's first Catholic church. One account describes a female fish cleaner as covered from head to toe in scales as they performed their tasks with wonderful alacrity and skill." As for Cameron, it was named for Thomas, Sixth Lord Fairfax, Baron Cameron. Faced with widespread opposition, President Jefferson signed the Non-Intercourse Act in 1809, which repealed the Embargo Acts and re-opened American shipping to other countries, excepting that of France and Great Britain. True, many Americans were still strongly pro-French, but others were just as staunchly mistrustful of the radical Jacobins and the consulate and the empire which followed. 1817: New York Stock Exchange established; 1817-1818: Treaties with Britain begin settlement and demilitarization of the U.S./Canada borderline; 1818: Boston establishes public elementary schools; 1821-1826: U.S. recognizes republican governments in Spains former Latin American colonies, 1821-1827: Half of the decades annual best selling books are novels by, 1822: Planned slave revolt crushed in Charleston, 1829: Andrew Jackson inaugurated as President and introduces spoils system on an unprecedented level, 1827-1838: Beginning of great Irish and German immigration, 1830: Andrew Jackson reorganizes his cabinet as a result of the, 1830: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints founded. The new Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company commenced a canal along the Potomac in 1828, intended to reach the markets and the raw materials of the Ohio Valley. The City owns many of the premier historic sites in Alexandria and it is charged with the conservation, interpretation and promotion of these links to the past. In 1775, Nicholas Cresswell witnessed a ball here and reported: "Old Women, Young wives with young children in the lap, widows, maids and girls come promiscuously to these assemblies." It also had several baking establishments, where ships bread and crackers are made equal to any manufactured in the United States or elsewhere, two ship yards, an extensive brewery, and several tanneries, a foundry upon a large scale with a manufactory of steam engines and various machinery for cotton factories, and several manufactories of cigars. The town carried on an extensive trade in flour, tobacco, sumac, fish, lumber and other articles, with the Southern states, West India and Europe. By 1831 209,294 barrels of flour were shipped from the port, with total foreign exports reaching about $600,000 to $900,000 a year in the early 1830s {Martin}. Southerners were becoming more dogmatic in their own defense. He and his brother, Thomas, ultimately acquired some land in what is now Arlington County. The President was naturally highly excited and exasperated - he departed amidst the cheers and good wishes of the great crowd which had assembled.'' (Alexandria Gazette5/25/1889) Since its unveiling, the Confederate monument, whose base is inscribed with the names of Alexandria's war dead, has perpetuated the memory of those one hundred Alexandrians who fought and perished for "The Lost Cause." James Philips was the mason for the project, and William H. McKnight and David Price executed the carpentry. The crescent-shaped bay upon which Alexandria was founded offered proximity to the Potomac, but consisted largely of shallows and mud flats bounded by thirty-foot bluffs. A notable instance of the practice of base deception was the distribution of facsimiles of democratic tickets. Posted: Aug 19, 2023 / 08:27 AM EDT. In the mid-1770s the Staffordshire potters began to add cobalt to the glaze and used cobalt blue Chinoiserie decoration, in imitation of porcelain designs. Founded as a subscription library in 1794. Barnum opens museum in New York City, 1843: Methodist Church splits over slavery; typewriter invented. Through the years Alexandria had suffered the scourge of typhoid and dysentery epidemics. The federal government requested that the State of Virginia raise three regiments of infantry to serve in the volunteer army, and Virginia Governor J. Hoge Tyler notified all volunteer military organizations in the state to be prepared for active duty. Sharing many of the elements of its predecessor, the Georgian style, Federal architecture was more chaste, refined and attenuated. For all practical purposes this was Alexandria's first attempt to implement a local transit system. Because the attack had occurred in the District of Columbia, an arrest warrant could not be served on Randolph in Virginia. To the classically educated elites of the day, of course, the double meaning, i.e., the reference to Alexandria, Egypt, would certainly not be unintentional, coincidental or unappreciated. But strange to say, this American Pompeii has resisted every phase of modern progress thus far" [Alexandria Gazette12/4/1872]. Dependent on far-flung commerce, Alexandria was damaged as much as anywhere. Nicholas Cresswell witnessed the Independent Company fire at an effigy of Lord North, the British prime minister, then carry it through the town to finally burn it. The General Assembly granted a charter for the construction of the "Little River Turnpike" west from Alexandria to Snicker's Gap. Again, the election was notable because prominent builder John A. Seaton won a seat on the Board of Aldermen, thus becoming Alexandria's first black member of that political body. Alexandria | Silk Roads Programme - UNESCO Other institutions important to the Anglo-Americans were budding too. Isaac Littledale's 1200-ton Hero in 1760 and the Jenny in 1768. The Rev. Kentucky SenatorHenry Clay advocated high tariffs to protect America's young industries, while South CarolinianJohn C. Calhoundecried the tariff as unfair to the agrarian South, importers of finished goods. It was every slaveholder's nightmare. Some, ill fed, were even taken into the homes of citizens. Greener pastures, both literally and figuratively, led many residents West and discouraged the arrival of the numbers of immigrants which flooded many East Coast cities. The Duc de la Rochefoucault noted: "Alexandria is beyond all comparison the handsomest town in Virginia and indeed is among the finest in the United States. In the ensuing battle, Braddock's army was routed, and Braddock himself was killed. Like the sponsors of the Cameron settlement, the Alexandria partisans apparently thought it wouldn't hurt to flatter the wealthiest and most influential man in the county. In 1838, the noted American architect, Robert Mills, creator of the Washington Monument and Architect of Public Buildings, designed the District Courthouse for Alexandria, D.C., on the west side of the 300 block of North Columbus Street. Lord Cornwallis arrived with another army in May and insisted that Virginia should be the main theater of war. The year 1686 was a hard one for native and settler alike; a dreadful epidemic of diphtheria spread through the colony. If vacancies occurred in Alexandria's municipal government, military officers exercised the legal authority to choose substitute candidates from a list of "loyal" citizens supplied by the Republican Party. An early tobacco warehouse was a simple forty-or-sixty foot square, probably ten feet high inside, framed with hewn timbers and sided with rough riven clapboards. And then, a disaster occurred which probably affected Alexandria more adversely than any other single event-the tragic fire of January 1827. 1847: Mormons begin settle Salt Lake valley; rotary press invented; American Medical Association founded; 1848: Revolutions in Europe spur emigration; 1850:Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act, 1850: First cast iron and glass buildings; Nathaniel Hawthorne's, 1851: Isaac Singer patents improved sewing machine; Western Union founded; Herman Melville's. Information on how to get to and through the City of Alexandria, including walking, biking, bus, rail, air, ridesharing, and more. In 1880, three years after the end of a major national depression, Councilman Isaac Eichberg commented that "[Alexandria] was in a better condition than it had been for the past 12 or 15 years." The town also boasted the steam wheat mill of George Y. Worthington, the sash door and blind factories of Rishiell and Hooge and Jamieson, Uhler and Co., the brickyards of W.D. While pro-Confederate whites began to return to Alexandria, the massive influx of freed blacks nonetheless significantly changed the racial composition of the city. The streets are crowded with wagons and the people all seem to be busy." With the chaos of the mid 1600s, conflicting patents were granted by Charles I, Oliver Cromwell, and Charles II the latter often as a reward to royalists who had helped restore his throne. The following year was a nightmare for the French, who lost Fort Niagara, Fort Carillon (Ticonderoga), and Fort Frdric (Crown Point) along the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain. While occupying the geographical center of Alexandria, the market block's structures drew core activities and decision-making, which led to the town's ascendancy as the regional hub. Because of the swift U.S. victory, they were released from duty on August 29 and formally mustered out October 10. Most had earlier fled South, and those that remained were not permitted to go out at night. As a royal colony after 1624, Virginia generally enjoyed benign neglect, except with regard to the collection of the King's revenues. Until City Hall was reconstructed, Council met in the Fairfax Street hall of the Harmonie Association, a German musical and social club [Alexandria Gazette5/20/1871]. The population was said to be 4,971 in 1800, but grew to 6,543 by 1808 and to 7,143 in 1810. The History of Alexandria: Discovering the Decades The miserable skeletons of antiquated buildings are metamorphosed into large, neat and substantial edifices which are useful and ornamental. Pinn, another African American, was elected magistrate during the contest. The town's streets and byways were dotted with silversmiths, saddlers, blacksmiths, furniture makers, bakers, whitesmiths, tanners, brewers, seamstresses and tobacconists to name a few. The road roughly paralleled the current Route 1, then crossed Four Mile Run, and eventually led to the new Long Bridge across the Potomac. [William F. Smith & T. Michael Miller,A Seaport Saga], The sound of the broad ax, saw and hammer were heard throughout Alexandria as many new houses, wharves and warehouses were built. Most creamware was undecorated, but some was transfer printed or hand- painted over the glaze in bright enamel colors. The Friendship and Sun Fire companies appeared along Market Alley. Alexandria's militia units, under orders from Virginia Governor Wise, repaired to Harpers Ferry to quell the disturbance. We walk through Jones Point Park today enjoying the pastoral scene within the city and under the shadow of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. [Smith and Miller] In the middle of the decade, the Orange & Alexandria constructed a tunnel on Wilkes Street, to carry the trains through the bluff at Lee Street and down to the waterfront, and a stone bridge over Hooff's Run. [Duffy] Despite the apparent profit from commerce, the feeling that the town was falling behind its peers is palpable in the press' ubiquitous boosterism. The Lyceum, with its restrained and austere classical formality, is a fine example of the Greek Revival style and an important architectural ornament to the city'' [Denys Peter Myers, The Greek Revival Style in Alexandria in Historic Alexandria Antiques Show Bulletin 1990], As America gradually recovered from the economic woes of the 1830s, so did Alexandria. Among the new industrial concerns was T.W. Nonetheless, the editor of theAlexandria Gazettecommented on what he perceived to be an underlying weakness in the local economy and suggested that Alexandrians rely less on flour exports and concentrate on establishing large, diversified trading houses. [Miller]. The first free school was established for orphans on the third floor of the new Alexandria Academy in 1785. Custis, (Martha Washington's grandson) delivered a patriotic and eloquent address, pertinent to the glorious day. The project was soon beset by problems as Alexandria was unable to meet its annual $15,000 interest payment. 1828 when the sugar house ceased operation. Based on the most economical pattern of narrow urban lots, this latter form became the most common during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In addition to the large industrial concerns, the city was home to 24 saloons, seven barbers, fourteen lawyers, seven doctors, eleven hotels and boarding houses, ten commission merchants, three photographers, three auctioneers, four insurance agents, two bankers, four land agents, seventeen liquor dealers, two distillers, four dentists and two express agents [Alexandria Gazette6/15/1870]. Discovering the Decades was created in honor of the City's 250th Birthday in 1999. 1820, was the first "china" dinnerware which was affordable to a large percentage of Americans. Due to motives ranging from sincere belief in racial equality to a desire to humble white Southerners, the Radical Republicans also sought to give blacks the right to vote and to assume positions of authority in the governments of the former Confederate states. Private houses, churches, and local public buildings were commandeered for military barracks, hospitals and prisons. Yet each election, the Republicans and Independents, if they put forth candidates at all, were soundly defeated. Runs Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays beginning at 11:30 a.m. and lasting three hours. The horse trolley was finished by July 1873 and all the cars running by the 21st. At the dawn of a new decade Alexandrians were delighted to fete Ambassador Thomas Jefferson at Wise's Tavern (201 North Fairfax Street) upon his return from France in March 1790. These transportation developments reflected and encouraged a north and westward shift in population, as suburbanites found they could commute from Rosemont (platted 1906), Del Ray, Braddock Heights, and St. Elmo to Washington or the center of Alexandria, and as workmen settled in Del Ray near jobs in the train yards. Alexandria voters elect a Mayor and City Council and three local officers, as well as state and federal representatives. And planters soon discovered that tobacco quickly exhausted the soil. Congress passed an act in 1812 establishing a canal company in Alexandria. In close proximity one might find Dutch wholesalers, French dry goods dealers, sellers of Barbadian rum and Madeira wine, and exporters of flour and wheat for the European and West Indian markets. On December 31, 1872, an extensive fire destroyed Daingerfield's and Cazenove's block of five large warehouses in the commercial heart of the waterfront along the east side of the 100 block of N. Union Street. One noteworthy individual who never gained his freedom was "Negro Tom," a slave of Elizabeth Cox of Fairfax County. In an era when most turnpikes failed to turn a profit, the Little River, under the direction of Alexandria Quaker Phineas Janney, paid dividends to its shareholders. The municipality was limited, however, in the kinds of investments it could make. The organizers of the petition would have a struggle to gain the approval of their preferred site. Private societies were created for furnishing employment to the industrious, indigent and several for supplying food, clothing and fuel to the poor in winter.. The gentlemen nominated for Aldermen and Councilmen at the recent democratic primary election had no competition. Transportation improvements were already underway. Admirers of Locke and Rousseau, many foresaw the day when slavery would fade away; some even took some strides toward that end. However, a new prime minister, William Pitt the Elder, committed England to total war and to reinforcing the colonies. [Ethelyn Cox,Historic Alexandria, Virginia Street By Street] In 1850 the assessed value of property in Alexandria was $2,850,935. Men on the streets declared that Alexandria had rid herself of another ism." (Alexandria Gazette5/27/1881), In response to concerns expressed about local saloons, however, City Council passed "Blue laws" in May 1881, calling for the better observance of the Christian Sabbath specifying that the sale of all intoxicating liquors, tobacco, cigars, or other articles of merchandise be prohibited on Sundays. 1830: First U.S. locomotive constructed; B & O Railroad opens; 1831:Nat Turnerrevolt; Anti-Masonic Party founded; mechanical reaper invented, 1832-1833: Controversy over state nullification of federal laws reaches its peak, and lower tariffs adopted to assuage the feelings of Southerners, 1833: Jackson vetoes renewal of the charter of the Second Bank of the United States; sudden withdrawal of federal funds from Bank causes a financial panic, 1834: First use of federal troops to intervene in a labor dispute (among the Irish laborers constructing the C & O Canal); electric motor invented, 1836: Texas declares its independence and fights a two-month war with Mexico; U.S. Patent Office established; Samuel Colt patents the revolver, 1836-1844: Congress repeatedly denies hearings on anti-slavery legislation, 1837: Financial panic brought about by reckless land speculation; Samuel Morse patents, 1837-1840: American-Canadian border tensions, 1839: Charles Goodyear discovers vulcanized rubber, 1840: Antislavery Liberty Party founded; 10-hour day declared for laborers on federal public works; worlds first dental school opened in Baltimore, 1842: American settlement of Oregon territory begins; Canadian border with Maine and upper Midwest settled; first recorded use of general anesthesia in surgery; P.T. [Gazette 5/25/1870 and 6/22/1870] Rev. He selected AlexandriansDr. James Craik as chief physician and surgeon to the army and Dr. William Brown as surgeon general of the Hospital Middle Department. Are you ready? Learn how we can help you start or relocate your business in Alexandria, and access resources for existing businesses and commuters. By 1749, the site at West's Point had been a tobacco inspection station for 17 years, and it was not practical to establish a port town separate from where the inspection of the area's main crop was taking place. And the soil in the Tidewater area was already tired; slaves already in the colony were proving sufficient for agricultural labor. At the mercy of the British squadron, the town council acceded to the enemy's demands, and for the next five days the British looted stores and warehouses of 16,000 barrels of flour, 1,000 hogsheads of tobacco, 150 bales of cotton and some $5,000 worth of wine, sugar and other items. As the official church of the colony, naturally the Church of England was at the center of religious and political life in Alexandria and the first to build a proper church. Vernon to protect General Washington's home from privateers and led to the construction of a new battery by the town's citizens. Charles Broadwater's land south of Hunting Creek was the intended site for the upper Potomac warehouse, but it was found to be "very inconvenient." In 1817, Alexandria's Commonalty decided to erect a new market house on Royal Street. The war intervened, however, and little was accomplished. Soon reconstructed, however, the plant manufactured an assortment of beer and soda bottles, flasks, and medicine and food bottles for the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, McCormick and Company and others. Brown, a former assistant of Henry Hobson Richardson, also designed theRichardsonian RomanesqueMuir House at 228 North Columbus Street and made detailed drawings of the interior of Gadsby's Tavern. The Summers family cemetery is located near the intersection of Beauregard Street and Barnum Lane. [St. Mary's Catholic Church, St. Mary's: 200 Years for Christ]. By 1783, trade patterns had largely been re-established with Europe with about half of Alexandria's export tonnage being transported there and most of the rest to the West Indies. The colonel and his retinue entered the hotel, climbed to the roof and seized the banner. By 1806, with some financial aid from the state, it had laid out, paved and opened a new road to Aldie. Union soldiers and sympathizers, however, celebrated wildly in the streets as a victory parade formed at the end of North Washington Street and wended its way through the city. A short time later, on his way to Fort Duquesne, Washington and his men killed and captured a small group of French soldiers camping in a narrow glen. In retrospect, he is perhaps most notable as Alexandria's first Jewish mayor. [T. Michael Miller, ed.,Pen Portraits], The town again extended its boundaries in 1785 and 1786, largely because of the sales of additional tracts from the Alexander family's adjoining holdings. Explore 9 historic sites for $20 plus receive 40% off admission toGeorge Washingtons Mount Vernon,Potomac Riverboat Company by Hornblowerand the tall shipProvidence. Research provided by Sara Revis assisted in recreating the bustling activities which occurred here between 1804 and ca. They marched through the principal streets, the air resounding with shouts, the windows filled with ladies waving their handkerchiefs, and the side walks covered with a moving mass of lookers-on. The History of Alexandria, Virginia: An Introduction and It was no accident, for instance, that the Alexandria Savings Institution was founded in 1847, and that the Bank of Potomac and the Farmers Bank merged with the Exchange Bank of Virginia the same year. Company B of the First Virginia Regiment, composed of Alexandrians, was escorted to the wharf by the Mount Vernon Guards and Ringgold Cavalry as they boarded the steamer Phoenix for Aquia Creek. In fact, most Virginians remained loyal to the monarchy duringCromwell'srule (one reason why so many latter-day Virginians would claim descent from the Cavaliers). "The affair caused much comment and when the Police Court was called to order a crowd assembled to witness the trial." Law and order was a high priority, and Council saw fit to hire additional police officers to patrol the city. From Fairfax and Prince Streets the fire jumped to the corner of Water [Lee] and Prince. Miniature mountains of hay and pyramids of oat bags, high up in the air, meet the gaze as one approaches the city from the river. A number of City staff contributed to this project, from Historic Alexandria, the Department of Planning and Zoning, and the Alexandria Library. Artifacts from these taverns are quite different from those in homes. The large 1792 building has a much plainer (and more "planar") facade; it too has jack arches, but of rubbed, gauged brick and not Renaissance-inspired stone voussoirs. The killing and suffering of the War did not come to an end until after April 9, 1865, when General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysees Grant at Appomattox Court House. [William F. Smith and T. Michael Miller,A Seaport Saga]. (Alexandria Gazette5/26/1880) The largest employers were foundries, shipyards, a brewery, a cracker factory, a shoe factory, brick manufacturers, and lumber and coal dealers. The 1774 Fairfax Resolves called for "an entire stop forever put to such a wicked, cruel, and unnatural trade." As a result, Alexandrians began to agitate for the construction of a canal paralleling the river. By 1790, Alexandria had become the principal port on the Potomac. While taverns generally had basic meals and beverages, they occasionally hosted fancy balls. In the 1844 Presidential election, Alexandrians supported Whig Henry Clay, who had promoted projects benefitting the District, against Democrat James K. Polk, who had earlier voted against aid to the victims of Alexandria's great 1827 fire. One response of the Virginia government was the erection of a string of forts on the frontier. [Smith and Miller,Seaport Saga]. There's always something to do in Alexandria! Descending the staircase, Ellsworth was shot in the chest by Jackson. Then, a temporary relaxation of tension was followed by a series of mob attacks on royal ships enforcing trade regulations. "Alexandria is one of the most wicked places I ever beheld in my life; cockfighting, horse racing, with every species of gambling and cheating, being apparently the principal business going forward. Major production of glass began in the early 1890s by theVirginia Glass Company, located on the south side of the 1800 block of Duke Street in West End. From walking tours to boat tours to bike tours, immerse yourself in Alexandrias history. It would also appear that the ploy failed; Philip Alexander opposed the legislation, perhaps having thrown his support to the Cameron partisans whose settlement also adjoined his tract. [Smith and Miller], Recognizing the importance of transportation, Council purchased stock in several of the railroad companies, considered extending the Alexandria Canal into the heart of the city, and made great strides in improving wharves and in grading, paving and draining streets (such as finally creating the 700 block of Cameron Street, cutting it through and around the north side of the Christ Church yard).