Everywhere I turned I found General Washington: as a little boy on his brother Lawrence's barge bringing Mount Vernon tobacco to the Hunting Creek warehouse; on horseback riding to the village of Belle Haven; as an embryo surveyor carrying the chain to plot the streets and lots. He was dancing at the balls, visiting the young ladies, drilling the militia, racing horses, launching vessels, engaging workmen, dining at this house or that, importing asses, horses, and dogs, running for office, sitting as justice; sponsoring the Friendship Fire Company, a free school, the Alexandria Canal, or other civic enterprises. He was pewholder of Christ Church and master of the Masonic lodge. To town he came to collect his mail, to cast his ballot, to have his silver or his carriage repaired, to sell his tobacco or his wheat, to join the citizenry in celebrating Independence. His closest friends and daily companions were Alexandrians. The dwellings, wharves, and warehouses of the town were as familiar to him as his Mount Vernon farm.
In Alexandria Washington took command of his first troops. From the steps of Gadsby's Tavern he received his last military review, a display of his neighbors' martial spirit in a salute from the town's militia. An Alexandrian closed his eyes, and Alexandrians carried his pall.
Washington belongs to Alexandria as Alexandria belongs to him. This is George Washington's Alexandria.
GAY MONTAGUE MOORE.
Alexandria, Virginia
September 1949
CONTENTS
| [vii] | ||||
| [PART ONE: PROLOGUE] | ||||
| AN ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST CENTURY OF THE SEAPORT OF ALEXANDRIA | ||||
| [PART TWO] | ||||
| THE PRESENCE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, 1749-1799 | ||||
| Chapter | ||||
| 1: | William Ramsay: Romulus of Alexandria | [52] | ||
| 2: | John Carlyle and His House | [62] | ||
| 3: | The Married Houses | [71] | ||
| 4: | The Fairfaxes of Belvoir and Alexandria | [77] | ||
| 5: | The George William Fairfax House | [87] | ||
| 6: | John Gadsby and His Famous Tavern | [99] | ||
| 7: | The Michael Swope House | [112] | ||
| 8: | Dr. William Brown and His Dwelling | [119] | ||
| 9: | The Peruke Shop | [127] | ||
| 10: | Historic Christ Church | [131] | ||
| 11: | The Presbyterian Meetinghouse | [139] | ||
| 12: | Presenting The Sun Fire Company | [147] | ||
| 13: | Captain John Harper and His Houses | [156] | ||
| 14: | Dr. Elisha C. Dick and the Fawcett House | [162] | ||
| 15: | The Benjamin Dulany House | [173] | ||
| 16: | Dr. James Craik and His Dwelling | [184] | ||
| 17: | Alexandria's Old Apothecary Shop | [195] | ||
| 18: | Spring Gardens | [197] | ||
| 19: | William Fitzhugh and Robert E. Lee | [202] | ||
| 20: | George Washington's Tenements | [210] | ||
| 21: | The Georgian Cottage | [217] | ||
| 22: | The Vowell-Snowden House | [222] | ||
| 23: | The Edmund Jennings Lee House | [225] | ||
| EPILOGUE: Washington in Glory—America in Tears | [230] | |||
| [PART THREE] | ||||
| FIVE SKETCHES OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY | ||||
| 24: | The Yeaton-Fairfax House | [232] | ||
| 24: | The Lafayette-Lawrason-Cazenove House | [239] | ||
| 26: | Enter the Quaker Pedagogue: Benjamin Hallowell | [239] | ||
| 27: | The Alexandria Lyceum | [254] | ||
| 28: | The Sea Captain's Daughter and Her House | [259] | ||
| Acknowledgments | [263] | |||
| Chapter References | [265] | |||
| Bibliography | [272] | |||
| Index | [275] | |||