july 21–27, 2025

What's New

FEATURED EVENT 

Science behind Harry Potter
Gadsby’s Tavern Museum, 134 N. Royal Street 
Sunday, July 27
1 - 5 p.m.
$15 per person
Tickets can be purchased online.

In honor of Harry’s birthday, the Apothecary Museum is offering a special guided tour for families (and adults who missed their Hogwarts’ letter) that will explore the old Apothecary and the historic muggle medicines that inspired the Herbology and Potions of Harry’s wizarding world. At the end of the tour test your skills and make your own potion to try at home. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Photography welcome!

Upcoming Events

View the Historic Alexandria Calendar                                                                                                                                                      

Trivia Nights at Historic Sites: Hunger Games
Lee-Fendall House Museum & Garden, 614 Oronoco Street
Friday, July 25 (biweekly through August)
7-9 p.m.
$12 admission
Purchase tickets.  

Join staff from Lee-Fendall House Museum and Carlyle House Historic Park for bi-weekly trivia nights in the beautiful gardens located at Lee-Fendall House. Test your knowledge all summer on all things from pop culture to history! Teams may have up to 6 members. Cost includes one drink ticket; additional drinks can be bought at our cash bar. Teams may have up to 6 members. Ages 21 and over only. No outside alcohol is permitted. Food and water may be brought into the garden.

Specialty Tour: Hamilton's BFF & Frenemies–SOLD OUT
Gadsby’s Tavern Museum, 134 N. Royal Street 
Saturday, July 26
10 -11 a.m.

Inspired by the musical Hamilton, learn how the paths of Washington, Lafayette, Jefferson, Madison, and Burr all intersected with this local tavern. Includes discussion of the issues they faced and how their choices impacted local citizens.

Specialty Tour: Civil War Medicine
Fort Ward Museum & Historic Site, 4301 West Braddock Rd.
Saturday, July 26
10 -11a.m. (check-in opens at 9:45 a.m.)
$15, $12 Historic Alexandria members
Purchase tickets.

Medicine in the Civil War isn't all just amputations and dysentery! Come explore the wild world of Civil medicine in the 1860s at Fort Ward Museum. The 1-hour tour will include a brief background of Alexandria's role in medicine during the war and a deeper dive into medicine in both the field and hospitals. The tour will also include a look at artifacts not currently on display! Please be sure to arrive 5 minutes before tour time. Doors will be locked at the start of the tour. This tour is indoors.

Family Day with Young Historians
Gadsby’s Tavern Museum, 134 N. Royal Street  
Sunday, July 27 (every Sunday through Labor Day)
2- 5 p.m.
Included in regular museum admission.

Junior Docents (4th through 6th graders) provide stationed tours throughout the two tavern buildings and operate special, hands-on activity stations about period clothing and chocolate making. It’s a unique and fun way to explore history for all ages.

Annual Friendship Firehouse Festival
100 Block of South Alfred Street
Saturday, August 2, 2025
9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Free

Join us to celebrate Friendship Fire Company’s 251st year! Learn about fire safety today, and yesterday, and see Alexandria Fire Department equipment up close. There will be booths by the Alexandria Police Department and Sheriff’s Office, music performances, displays by community organizations, local vendors, and food and beverage sales. Join in water play and please-touch artifact activities. Children will receive free toy Friendship firefighting helmets. This family friendly event is presented by the Friendship Veterans Fire Engine Association and the Office of Historic Alexandria.

Carlyle House Family Fun Day - Pet Fête
Carlyle House, 121 N. Fairfax Street  
Saturday, August 2 (First Saturday of the month from April – November)
Noon -3 p.m.
Free
More information online. 

Come join your friends on the Carlyle House Magnolia Terrace for Family Fun Day on the first Saturday of the month from April - November! From noon - 3 p.m., you can sit in on story time that starts at the top of the hour and participate in crafts and other activities that relate to the theme of the month. This program is for all ages, though some of the crafts might be challenging for guests under 4. There is no fee to join this program, but donations are encouraged.

City of Alexandria Pipes and Drums Summer Concert on Market Square
Market Square, 301 King Street
Thursday, August 7 
7:45- 8:45 p.m.
Free

Celebrate Alexandria’s Scottish heritage with the City of Alexandria Pipes and Drums at a free summer concert series! Enjoy performances featuring bagpipes and drums. Combining precision marching with powerful and stirring musical arrangements rooted in Scottish heritage, the City of Alexandria Pipes and Drums has been captivating audiences for over 50 years. 

Benjamin Thomas Remembrance Event
Shiloh Baptist Church,1401 Jamieson Street
Friday, August 8, 2025
6:30 - 8 p.m.
Doors open at 6:15, Program begins at 6:30, Book signing at 7:30.
Free
More information online. 

Please join us on Friday, Aug. 8 at Shiloh Baptist Church at 6:30 p.m. to honor and remember Benjamin Thomas. Don’t miss the chance to hear Pulitzer Prize Winning Historian Steven Hahn speak in remembrance of Benjamin Thomas who was denied due process and lynched in Alexandria on Aug. 8, 1899. A book signing will follow the program.

Dr. Hahn will speak about this Nation’s long relationship with political violence, racial terror, and the perpetual struggle to fulfill the promise of democracy made in the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.

Shiloh Baptist Church was where Benjamin Thomas was baptized just two years before he was lynched. Shiloh Baptist Church was also the site of his Memorial Service that drew more than 600 African Americans from Alexandria and Washington who came to protest the racial violence wielded against their community. 

Hahn’s most recent book, Illiberal America A History, and his seminal work, for which he won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for History, A Nation Under Our Feet, Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration will be available for purchase.

Trivia Nights at Historic Sites: Baseball
Lee-Fendall House Museum & Garden, 614 Oronoco Street
Friday, August 8 (biweekly through August)
7-9 p.m.
$12 admission
Purchase tickets.  

Join staff from Lee-Fendall House Museum and Carlyle House Historic Park for bi-weekly trivia nights in the beautiful gardens located at Lee-Fendall House. Test your knowledge all summer on all things from pop culture to history! The theme of our August 8th trivia night will be Baseball. Cost includes one drink ticket; additional drinks can be bought at our cash bar. Teams may have up to 6 members. Ages 21 and over only. No outside alcohol is permitted. Food and water may be brought into the garden.

Support Historic Alexandria

Historic Alexandria receives City operational funding to support its mission; however, these resources do not cover the full scope of the department’s strategic goals and projects. Donations, special revenue, and grant funding help supplement staff, conservation work, and educational programs. Please consider making a gift today.

Historic Alexandria Museum Hours

Plan your Visit

Alexandria Archaeology Museum 
Tuesdays–Fridays, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m., Saturdays, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., Sundays, 1 –5 p.m.

Alexandria Black History Museum
Thursdays & Fridays, 11 a.m.– 4 p.m., Saturdays, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., Sundays, 1– 5 p.m.

Alexandria History Museum at The Lyceum 
Thursdays & Fridays, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m., Saturdays, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., Sundays, 1 – 5 p.m.  

Fort Ward Museum 
Thursdays & Fridays, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m., Saturdays, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., Sundays, 1 – 5 p.m.

Freedom House 
Closed to Visitors During Front Door Restoration
Freedom House Museum is temporarily closed to visitors to allow for the completion of the front façade restoration and installation of new entry doors. 
UPDATE: The front facade work is almost done so the scaffolding is coming down. While we are excited to share this rehabilitation update, the two doors to the Freedom House Museum and their hardware are still being fabricated so the museum will be closed through the end of August. 

To learn more about the ongoing rehabilitation, visit the Freedom House Rehabilitation Project page. Project updates will be posted regularly on the Freedom House webpage. 

Friendship Firehouse Museum
Saturday, August 2, 9 a.m. –  2 p.m. The Museum will be open as part of the annual Friendship Firehouse Festival. 

Gadsby’s Tavern Museum
Thursdays & Fridays, 11 a.m.– 4 p.m., Saturdays, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., Sundays-Tuesdays, 1– 5 p.m.

Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum
Wednesdays–Fridays, 11 a.m.– 4 p.m., Saturdays, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.*, Sundays & Mondays 1 - 5 p.m.
NEW: Apothecary Night Shift–Every Saturday in June and July the museum is open 11 a.m.--7 p.m.

2025 Historic Alexandria Holiday Ornament - Available Now in Historic Alexandria museum stores and in our online store!

Celebrate Alexandria’s 19th-century canal history with this beautifully crafted, American-made brass ornament.This year’s design honors the Alexandria Canal, featuring a canal boat exiting Lock No. 4 heading eastward toward the Potomac River, uncovered by archaeologists in the winter of 2025 on N. Pitt Street. The Alexandria Canal was in use from 1843 to 1886. Learn more here. 

Visit our website and follow us on social media to discover new things about your hometown. For more information, visit alexandriava.gov/Historic. Admission to City of Alexandria museums is complimentary for city residents.

For reasonable disability accommodation, contact Nicole Quinn at historicalexandria@alexandriava.gov or call 703.746.4554, Virginia Relay 711.

This Week in Alexandria's History

More from This Day in History

On July 24, 1946, court approval was sought by the owners of the former residence of Dr. and Mrs. Hugh McGuire at 201 S. Washington Street to demolish the historic structure to make way for contemporary office development of the site. This action prompted a major citizen effort to preserve the structure, built in 1837 as a center for learning and knowledge known as The Lyceum. The original concept to build such a structure in Alexandria was led by local schoolmaster Benjamin Hallowell and, when finished, the building included the Alexandria library, exhibits of natural history and science and a large lecture hall on the second floor. Today, the building houses The Lyceum, Alexandria’s History Museum, and is one of the finest examples of Greek Revival architecture in the city.

Upcoming Commission and Committee Events

Commissions Supporting Historic Alexandria

• August 11 Alexandria-Caen Sister Cities Committee (SCC)
  City Hall, 301 King Street, Sister Cities Room 1101
  7-9 p.m.

• August 18 Alexandria Sister City Committee - Dundee and Helsingborg
  City Hall, 301 King Street, Sister Cities Room 1101
  7-8:30 p.m.

• August 18 George Washington Birthday Celebration Committee (GWBCC) 
  Lloyd House, 220 N. Washington Street
  7-9 p.m.