Black History Month is an annual recognition and celebration of the history, achievements and contributions of African Americans and persons of African descent in U.S. history. The City of Alexandria invites the public to celebrate Black History Month through special events and activities at the Alexandria Black History Museum and tours of Freedom House Museum, throughout February.

"Stand Up and Fight" is the theme for this year's Martin Luther King Jr. Art Exhibition. The student artwork will be on display in the Vola Lawson Lobby at City Hall from January 21, 2019 to February 28, 2019, with a recognition program in Council Chambers on January 21 at 1 pm. 

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama includes over 800 steel monuments, one for each county in the United States where a racial terror lynching took place. Their Community Remembrance Project invites jurisdictions to claim and install a copy of their monument. The City of Alexandria's monument is planned to be claimed and brought to the City in 2019.

Thanks for your voting support! OHA won first place and $4,000 toward the conservation of the 1853 Prettyman Hose Reel, through the Virginia Association of Museums contest.

This week in Historic Alexandria, enjoy the many exhibits, public programs and special events offered by our city’s great museums and historic sites! Information on daily calendar listings, museum hours, local history and much more is included in this e-newsletter, updated each week on this webpage or delivered to your in-box. To subscribe to this and other information from the City of Alexandria, create an e-news account and select your notifications of interest here.

Federal workers can pick up their free Key to the City (a $44 value) by stopping by the Alexandria Visitor Center and showing their employee ID. Visitors staying overnight can show their hotel room key for one free pass. The Alexandria Visitor Center is located at 221 King Street and is open Sunday through Wednesday from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. Includes admission to nine historic sites.

Join us in Old Town Alexandria each second Friday of the month for a concert sponsored by The Folklore Society of Greater Washington (FSGW) and The Office of Historic Alexandria. Concerts rotate between Lloyd House at 220 North Washington Street and the Alexandria History Museum at The Lyceum (AHM) at 201 South Washington Street. All concerts run from 6-8 p.m. Suggested donation for the musicians, light refreshments available, and a cash bar.

Many of the City's premier historic sites are owned and operated by the City of Alexandria and fall under the administration of the Office of Historic Alexandria, the department of City government charged with the conservation, interpretation and promotion of these links to the past. Find out more about each of our museums and historic sites.

Explore centuries of human history. See a 13,000-year-old Clovis point, an 18th-century apothecary, a restored Civil War fort, a 1940s segregated library, and more. See all the information you need to plan a visit to the Historic Alexandria museums. Before your visit, be sure to print an eSavings Coupon.

Freedom House Museum at 1315 Duke Street is open in January on Friday and Saturday from 1-5 p.m. February hours will include Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Admission is $5 per person. Tickets can be purchased at the door. The building is currently owned by the Northern Virginia Urban League and together with the Office of Historic Alexandria, we invite you to visit the museum in this historic reminder of slavery. 

Archaeologists working at the Robinson Landing site discovered the remains of three 18th-century ships, along with wharves, warehouses and more. Learn about these latest finds and about earlier nautical discoveries, including another ship, from the nearby Indigo Hotel site.

The hull of the 18th-century ship found in 2015 at the Hotel Indigo construction site is undergoing conservation at Texas A&M University's Conservation Research Laboratory. Please make a generous donation to the Save Our Ship Conservation Fund to ensure the preservation of the fragile wood timbers. 

Reinforce your teaching with hands-on experiences, field trips, lectures, educational kits and other resources. Programs are designed to foster interest in the history and culture of Alexandria from colonial times to the present. Schedule tours and programs for school groups, scout groups, home-school families, and camps, as well as for adults.

Looking for something fun for your family to do in Historic Alexandria? With  living history programs, festivals, teas, and more, there is something for every age! Make your child's birthday party a historic occasion, send your kid to Summer Camp, or check the Calendar of Events to plan your family fun.

What happened in Alexandria on today's date, or tomorrow, or on your birthday? See today's historical events, or search for another date. These daily events in Alexandria's history were first printed in "This Week in Historic Alexandria." 

Out of the Attic, featuring historical photographs of Alexandria, is a column produced by the Office of Historic Alexandria and published weekly in the Alexandria Times. An archive of articles dating back to the column's beginning in 2007 appears here with permission of the newspaper. Sort or search the index to learn about places or topics of interest.

The City of Alexandria’s wayfinding signage system helps people find their way around the city. Take a look at the new map and history panel “mini-kiosks” in Old Town, from the Masonic Temple on Shuter's Hill to the waterfront. Read the full text of the history panels here.

Enjoy a variety of walking and bike tours, listen to podcasts, explore Alexandria's Civil War heritage with a free iPhone app, go on a scavenger hunt, or learn about Trail Signs and the Alexandria Heritage Trail. For a short preview, check out Visit Alexandria 360, a virtual tour.

Visit the Museum Store at the Alexandria History Museum at The Lyceum (201 S. Washington Street) and online at The Alexandria Shop. The shop offers great gift ideas, a wide variety of Alexandria-related merchandise and the very best selections from all the Historic Alexandria museum stores. Your purchases support programming at Historic Alexandria's museums. 

The goal of this project is to expand interpretation in Fort Ward Park to include the full range of its history, especially including the African American experience and the post-Civil War Fort community. Fort Ward's Civil War history will remain a core theme, but new elements will explore the legacy of that pivotal era. A draft interpretive plan and design package were shared with the Fort Ward Interpretive Committee and the community on September 13. The public is invited to attend meetings of the Committee, announced on the Calendar of Events.