Alexandria's Changing Borders

Alexandria has grown and changed since its founding in 1749. Explore these changes:

Alexandria's Changing Boundaries video
Illustrated A History of the Boundaries of the City of Alexandria, Virginia: 1749-2024
Select from the dates below

Map Your Neighborhood Survey

How do you define your Alexandria neighborhood? Add to the resident-sourced survey to help map the many neighborhoods that make up the City of Alexandria.

red map point within the city map outline

Changes Since 1749

1749: Founding Alexandria

In October 1748, the Virginia General Assembly authorized the founding of a new town at the Hunting Creek tobacco warehouse, located near what is now the intersection of N. Union and Oronoco Streets. The act required the land to be surveyed and laid out by the Fairfax County surveyor, starting at the marshy area just north of the warehouse, following the Potomac River south to a point called “middle point” (Point Lumley), and then “back into the woods” far enough to enclose 60 acres of land. This area ranged from Pendleton Street in the north, halfway between Royal and Pitt Streets to the west, and halfway between Duke and Wolfe Streets in the south. While the new town was recorded on a well-known plat by a young George Washington, the official plat was recorded in the Fairfax County Record of Surveys by county surveyors Daniel Jennings and John West Jr. The municipal government was placed under eleven trustees tasked with “designing, building, carrying on, and maintaining the said town upon the land aforesaid.” They met for the first time on July 13, 1749, and these first lots were auctioned over the next two days.

1762: Gaining Ground

A little over a decade later, the legislature heard complaints that “all the lots…of the said town [were] already built upon.” In response, they expanded the boundaries of the town to the north, west, and south. The town grew by one block in each direction.

1779-1798: A Growing Town

The last quarter of the 18th century brought several changes to Alexandria. In 1779, it was officially incorporated as a town, replacing the trustees with an elected mayor, aldermen and common council as the municipal government. In 1796, it was reported to the General Assembly that “many of the lots [adjacent to the town of Alexandria]…have already been built upon,” and so, the Assembly expanded the limits of the town to include those adjacent lots that had already been improved. Two years later, in 1798, they included the rest of the area bounded by a half-block north of Montgomery Street, a half-block west of West Street, and the new District of Columbia line to the south. During this period, the town was also expanding to the east as waterfront property owners “banked out” by filling in the mudflats of the Potomac River. Any new land created this way was added to the town of Alexandria.

1801-1847: Alexandria, D.C. & Retrocession

Virginia ceded land to the District of Columbia in 1791 to create a capital that was a 10 mile by 10 mile square. As a result, Alexandria became officially incorporated into the Federal district in 1801. In 1847, Alexandria retroceded back to the state of Virginia.

1852-1871: City of Alexandria

In 1852, the town of Alexandria was officially rechartered as “the City of Alexandria.” The boundaries were extended by one block to the north, to include within the City the area around the newly-completed Alexandria Canal. The following year, the western boundary of the City was extended between one and two blocks between Cameron Street in the north and the former District of Columbia boundary in the south. In 1871, Alexandria became an Independent City.

1915: Annexing County Land

In 1915, the City of Alexandria annexed land from both Fairfax County and Alexandria County (renamed Arlington County in 1920). This area included Rosemont, Shuter’s Hill, Carlyle and Eisenhower East, the neighborhood formerly known as the West End, and the area between the former District of Columbia line and Cameron Run/Hunting Creek to the south.

1930: Doubling in Size

In 1930, the City again annexed portions of Fairfax and Arlington Counties, this time bounded by Little River Turnpike/Duke Street to the south, Quaker Lane to the west, and Four Mile Run to the north. This area included the Town of Potomac, which had previously been incorporated in its own right in 1908.

1945: Claiming the Pierline

Alexandrians have been filling in the shoreline along the Potomac River to create new land since the town’s founding. For the first 200 years of its existence, its eastern boundary had been the high tide line. In 1945, Congress passed a law making the pierhead line the eastern boundary of Alexandria.

1951: Annexing the West

The single largest area annexed by the City was taken from Fairfax County in 1951. Consisting of approximately 7 square miles, this area makes up about half of the modern City of Alexandria. This new western boundary of the City remains the western boundary of the City.

1966: Defining the North

Small changes were made to the City's northern boundary along Route 7, today’s South Walter Reed Drive, and Four Mile Run.

1973: Modern Alexandria

Fairfax County and the City of Alexandria negotiated a land swap. The City gained land around Eisenhower Avenue and Cameron Run in exchange for land around the Telegraph Road and I-495 interchange. This City boundary revision remains unchanged today.

Historic Alexandria

City of Alexandria, VA

Search results cleared

Alexandria's Changing Borders