THE GEORGE WASHINGTON MASONIC MEMORIAL
1101 Callahan Drive
Located on the very spot once proposed by Thomas Jefferson as the ideal site for the nation’s Capitol building, Alexandria’s iconic Masonic Memorial is home to Alexandria Lodge 22, the most famous Master of which was the first President of the United States. President Calvin Coolidge and former President and Chief Justice William H. Taft attended the dedication of the cornerstone on November 1, 1923 and, on May 12, 1932, President Herbert Hoover dedicated the Memorial. The grand building serves as a memorial “lighthouse” to George Washington, inspired by the ancient Egyptian Lighthouse of Alexandria.
OLD TOWN THEATER
815 ½ King Street
The first permanent theater constructed in Alexandria, the former Richmond Theater was built for “moving pictures, bowling alleys and billiards,” as described in its original permit to build dated April 16, 1914. The owners reportedly operated a vaudeville theater on the first floor and a dance hall on the second floor until around 1932. It is believed that W.C. Fields performed on the stage.
ATHENAEUM
201 Prince Street
Located in one of the oldest parts of Alexandria, the land the Athenaeum was built on was originally surveyed by George Washington and owned by Lord Fairfax. Constructed between 1851 and 1852, it served as the Bank of the Old Dominion until the Civil War when it became the Chief Commissary Office of the U.S. Commissary Quartermaster during occupation. It now serves as the home of the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association.
ALEXANDRIA BLACK HISTORY MUSEUM
902 Wyth Street
The Robert H. Robinson Library opened its doors on April 22, 1940. The Library came about as a result of what may have been the first use in the United States of a “sit-in” as a form of peaceful demonstration to protest segregation. Long before the 1960 Woolworth lunch counter sit-in in North Carolina, Alexandria’s nationally publicized sit-in ironically resulted not in ending segregation but in creating a separate, though far from equal, library for African Americans.
FOUR MILE RUN COMMUNITY CENTER
4109 Mount Vernon Avenue
As an expansion of Four Mile Run Park, the former Duron Paint Store building and adjacent vacant lots are in the process of being repurposed as a community gathering space with an outdoor performance stage. With the help of Architects Anonymous, the staff of the Department of Recreation, Parks & Cultural Activities, and a grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, this venue already hosts the Four Mile Run Farmers & Artisans Market, Casa Chirilagua, and now the Alexandria Film Festival!
