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Neighborhoods

Old Town

Old Dominion Bank Building, now an art gallery called the Athenaeum, in Old Town

Alexandria Torpedo Factory (waterfront side)

Old Town, in the eastern and southeastern areas of Alexandria and on the Potomac River, is the oldest section of the city, originally laid out in 1749, and is a historic district. Old Town is chiefly known for its historic town houses, art galleries, antique shops, and restaurants. Some of the historic landmarks in Old Town include General Robert E. Lee's boyhood home, the Lee-Fendall House, a replica of George Washington's townhouse, Gadsby's Tavern, the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Shop, and the Torpedo Factory art studio complex (see the "Recreation" paragraph below). River cruise boats and street entertainers frequent the large plaza at the foot of King Street; the Mount Vernon Trail also passes through. Old Town is laid out on a grid plan of substantially square blocks. The opening of the Washington Metro King Street station in 1983 led to a spurt of new hotel and office building development in western Old Town, and gentrification of townhouse areas west of Washington Street which were previously an African-American community.

Market Square in Old Town is the oldest continuously operating marketplace in the United States and was once the site of the second-largest slave market in the U.S. Today it contains a large fountain and extensive landscaping, as well as a farmers' market each Saturday morning.

Rosemont

Just to the west of Old Town is the city's oldest planned residential expansion. This classic turn of the 20th Century neighborhood continues the ambience of Old Town with a gradual transition to Arts and Crafts and other styles of traditional American domestic architecture. The atmosphere in this idyllic district is often said to recall the art of Norman Rockwell. Called by its creators Rosemont in honor of a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania neighborhood of the same name, Rosemont was developed between 1900 and 1920. Rosemont extends from the foot of Shuter's Hill, crowned by the George Washington National Masonic Memorial away to the north for a dozen blocks to the edge of Del Ray. Originally intended as a "streetcar suburb" connected to Washington, D.C. and George Washington's home at Mount Vernon by electric railroad, Rosemont, instead, became closely integrated into the life of the core of Alexandria. Much of Rosemont is included in a National Historic District intended to focus attention on the neighborhood's role as a showcase of early 20th Century home building styles. Television weatherman Willard Scott grew up here.

The Berg

On the northern limits of Old Town is the remnants of a historic, predominantly African American community known by its inhabitants as "The Berg". Built in 1945, the 260-unit public housing complex covers several blocks in what is now Old Town Alexandria. Today the Berg’s most prominent landmarks are the James Bland Homes (built in 1954) named after an African American musician and songwriter, and the Samuel Madden Homes, named after the first African-American pastor of the Alfred Street Baptist Church.

Over the years the historic roots of the Berg’s name were lost, and many assumed it referred to the monolithic, iceberg-like buildings of this apartment complex. It was mentioned in the movie Remember the Titans, which dramatizes the integration of city public schools in the 1970s through the creation of T.C. Williams High School. Some remnants of the Berg remain today, but the majority of Old Town has long since given way to gentrification, despite the efforts of The Old Town Alexandria Neighborhood Homeowner Preservation Association to combat its effects.

Street scene in Old Town

Burke & Herbert building, across from Market Square

Arlandria

Arlandria is a neighborhood located in the north-eastern portion of Alexandria. Its name is a combination of the words "Arlington" and "Alexandria," reflecting its location on the border of Arlington County and Alexandria. The neighborhood's borders form a rough triangle bounded by the Four Mile Run in the north, West Glebe Road to the south and south-west, and Route 1 to the east. Centered around Mount Vernon Avenue between the Four Mile Run and West Glebe Road, it is home to many Hispanic, Thai, and Vietnamese-owned bakeries, restaurants, salons, and bookstores. An influx of Salvadorean immigrants into the neighborhood in the 1980s has earned it the nickname "Chirilagua," after the city on the Pacific coast of El Salvador. Arlandria is also home to the Birchmere concert hall, the Alexandria Aces of the Cal Ripken, Sr. Collegiate Baseball League, and St. Rita Church, dedicated in 1949 and constructed in Gothic style from Virginia fieldstone and Indiana limestone.^[25]

Del Ray

The area to the northwest of Old Town, formerly in the separate town of Potomac, is popularly known as Del Ray, although that name properly belongs to one of many communities (including Hume, Mount Ida, and Saint Elmo) in that area. The communities of Del Ray and St. Elmo originated in early 1894, when developer Charles Wood organized them on a grid pattern of streets running north-south and east-west. Del Ray originally contained six east-west streets and five north-south. All were identical in width, except Mt. Vernon Avenue, which was approximately twenty feet wider. St. Elmo, a smaller tract, was laid out in a similar pattern, but with only four east-west streets and one running north-south.

By 1900, Del Ray contained approximately 130 persons, and St. Elmo 55. In 1908, the tracts of Del Ray, St. Elmo, Mt. Ida, and Hume were incorporated into the town of Potomac, which by 1910 had a population of 599; by 1920 it contained 1,000; and by 1928 it had 2,355 residents.

Bungalows in the Del Ray neighborhood

The 254 acres (1 km²) comprising Del Ray were sold to Charles Wood in 1894 for the sum of $38,900, while St. Elmo, made up of 39 acres (160,000 m²), was purchased for $15,314.

The community, while diverse, has experienced substantial gentrification since redevelopment began in Potomac Yard in the mid-1990s. Now one of the Washington D.C. metro area's most desirable neighborhoods, Del Ray boasts many new restaurants and shops, and draws tens of thousands of people during its annual Arts on the Avenue main street festival the first Saturday in October. The area across Route 1 from Del Ray has future development plans for condominiums, parks, and a fire station with affordable housing on upper floors.

West End

Alexandria's West End includes areas annexed from Fairfax County in the 1950s. It is the most typically suburban part of Alexandria, with a street hierarchy of winding roads and culs-de-sac. The section of Duke Street in the West End is known for a high-density residential area known to locals as "Landmark" and for its concentration of both strip and enclosed shopping malls. In more recent years, parts of Alexandria's West End have seen an influx of immigrants from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Afghanistan and Pakistan, who have settled in the areas surrounding Seminary Road west of I-395.

The West End is composed of four main areas. All are west of Quaker Lane, the main north-south artery through Alexandria:

• Seminary Hill, a mostly residential, single-family dwelling area near the Virginia Theological Seminary and the Episcopal and St. Stephen's & St. Agnes Schools off Seminary Road, ending in the area just west of the Inova Alexandria Hospital.
• Lower Alexandria (LA), south of the Duke Street corridor, are communities of small homes, rowhouses, townhomes along with commercial and retail real estate, including the Foxchase Shopping Center. The section between Wheeler Ave. and Jordan St. is also known as the "Block." In the 1960s and '70s, this section of Alexandria was also known because of Shirley Duke, a complex of 2,214 low-priced rental apartments, which became the Foxchase development in the early 1980s after five years of stagnancy. There are also areas of industrial businesses south of Duke Street, primarily off Wheeler Ave., South Pickett St., and South Van Dorn St. In the very southern part of this area is the Eisenhower Ave. corridor running parallel to the Capital Beltway (I-95/I-495), which is industrial and commercial in nature. The Van Dorn Metro Station here provides access to Washington, D.C.

Shops along Duke Street, towards the Landmark area

• The Landmark area, which includes Seminary Valley, a large single family area developed in the 1950s, is largely garden style apartments and condo-converted apartment hi-rises as well as a number of townhome developments from the 1970s is west of North Pickett St bordered by I-395/Van Dorn Street on the west and Seminary Road on the north. This area also includes Cameron Station and the main branch of the Alexandria Library, the Charles E. Beatley Central Library, named for Alexandria's mayor in the seventies and early eighties, Chuck Beatley. The Landmark Mall, developed in the mid-1960s and redeveloped in the 1980s, was Alexandria's primary retail area for decades. It is now anchored by Sears and Macy's department stores.
• The Seminary West neighborhoods are the communities west of I-395 but within the city limits of Alexandria. Beauregard Street is the primary artery running north & south to a mix of development from town home communities, single family neighborhoods, three large senior citizen living centers, garden and hi-rise apartments and condominiums. The Mark Center office development is a large commercial area in this community, which also includes the Alexandria Campus of the Northern Virginia Community College and its Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center.

New development along the Duke Street corridor

North Ridge (Beverly Hills)

North Ridge, also known as Beverly Hills, in northern Alexandria City, borders Arlington County and includes the very busy Braddock Road/King Street corridors. North Ridge takes its name from the high ground west of Russell Road and south of West Glebe Road. It is a residential area with homes of numerous styles (mostly single family houses) that were largely developed in the period of the 1930s through the early 1960s. This neighborhood includes many houses of worship as well as one of Virginia's eight Scottish Rite temples, a Masonic order. North Ridge students attend George Mason and Charles Barrett Elementary Schools and feed into George Washington Middle School and T. C. Williams High School. The Lower School of private St. Stephen's & St. Agnes School is located in the Jefferson Park neighborhood of North Ridge.

It is a neighborhood of walkers, joggers, and bicyclists, known for its friendliness and its profusion of crepe myrtles. Parks there include Monticello Park, Beverly Park and Robert Leider Park. All of the North Ridge community lies within the original 10-mile (16 km) square of the District of Columbia, ceded back to Virginia in 1846.

Nearby Neighborhoods

Many neighborhoods outside of the city limits, including Hollin Hills, Franconia, Groveton, Hybla Valley, Huntington, Belle Haven, Mount Vernon, Engleside, Burgundy Village, Waynewood, Wilton Woods, Virginia Hills, Hayfield, and Kingstowne use an Alexandria address. Despite the Alexandria address, these areas are actually part of Fairfax County, not the City of Alexandria.

Transportation

Alexandria is bisected north and south by State Route 7, known in most of the city as the major thoroughfare of King Street. Interstate 95/495 (the Capital Beltway), including the Woodrow Wilson Bridge over the Potomac River, approximately parallels the city's southern boundary with Fairfax County. Interstate 395 crosses through the western part of the city. Other major routes include U.S. 1 (named Jefferson Davis Highway, and Patrick and Henry Streets after Patrick Henry and Richmond Highway), the George Washington Memorial Parkway, and Duke Street (State Route 236).

Alexandria is located just south of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington County. As with other Washington suburbs, Alexandria is also served by Washington Dulles International Airport in Sterling, Virginia and by Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport near Baltimore, Maryland.

Southbound Amtrak train at Alexandria's Union Station

Alexandria Union Station, the city's historic train station, is served by both Amtrak intercity and Virginia Railway Express regional rail service. The station is directly adjacent to the King Street Metrorail station, at the convergence of the Blue and Yellow Lines. Three other Metrorail stations that lie within the city limits are Braddock Road, Van Dorn Street, and Eisenhower Avenue.

The traditional boundary between Old Town and the latterly annexed sections of the city followed the railway now owned by CSX Transportation.

The city government operates its own mass transit system, the DASH bus, connecting points of interest with local transit hubs. Metrobus, Washington Metro, and the Virginia Railway Express better known as the VRE also serves Alexandria. The City also offers a free trolley service on King Street from the King Street Metro Station to the Waterfront and a water taxi to and from the National Harbor development in Prince George's County, Maryland.

Geography

Alexandria's waterfront, seen from the Potomac River

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 15.4 square miles (39.9 km²), of which, 15.2 square miles (39.3 km²) of it is land and 0.2 square miles (0.6 km²) of it is water. The total area is 1.49% water. Alexandria is bounded on the east by the Potomac River, on the north and northwest by Arlington County, and on the south by Fairfax County. The western portions of the city were annexed from those two entities beginning in the 1930s.

The addressing system in Alexandria is not uniform and reflects the consolidation of several originally separate communities into a single city. In Old Town Alexandria, building numbers are assigned north and south from King Street and west (only) from the Potomac River. In the areas formerly in the Town of Potomac, such as Del Ray and St. Elmo, building numbers are assigned east and west from Commonwealth Avenue and north (only) from King Street. In the western parts of the city, building numbers are assigned north and south from Duke Street.

Postal Codes

The ZIP code prefix 223 uniquely identifies the Alexandria postal area. However, the Alexandria postal area extends well into Fairfax County and includes more addresses outside of the city than inside of it. Delivery areas have ZIP codes 22301, 22302, 22304, 22305, 22311, 22312, and 22314, with other ZIP codes in use for post office boxes and large mailers. ZIP codes are not assigned in any particular geographic order.

Recreation and Sites of Interest

Alexandria has a distributed park system with approximately 950 acres (3.8 km²) spread across 70 major parks and 30 recreation centers, of which Chinquapin is one of the largest. Chinquapin offers facilities for swimming, tennis, racquetball, and other sports. The city also organizes several sports leagues throughout the year including volleyball, softball and basketball.

Old Town Alexandria, viewed from the west, as seen from the observation deck of the George Washington Masonic National Memorial. King Street Station is in the foreground and the Potomac River is in the background

The city is unusual in that Cameron Run Regional Park includes a water park with a wave pool and water slides, as well as a miniature golf course and batting cages—facilities usually operated by private companies. A portion of the Mount Vernon Trail, a popular bike and jogging path, runs through Old Town near the Potomac River on its way from the Mount Vernon Estate to Roosevelt Island in Washington, DC. There is also a largely unbroken line of parks stretching along the Alexandria waterfront from end to end.

Landmarks within the city include the George Washington Masonic National Memorial (also known as the Masonic Temple) and Observation Deck, Christ Church, Gadsby's Tavern, John Carlyle House, Little Theatre of Alexandria, Lee-Fendall House, City Hall, Market Square, the Jones Point Light, the south cornerstone of the original District of Columbia, Robert E. Lee's boyhood home, the Torpedo Factory Art Center, and the Virginia Theological Seminary. Other sites of historical interest in the city include Alexandria Black History Resource Center, Fort Ward Park and Museum, and the Alexandria Canal lock re-creation at Canal Office Center. Interesting sites with Alexandria addresses but outside of the city limits include River Farm, Collingwood Library & Museum, Green Spring Gardens Park, Huntley Meadows Park, Pope-Leighey House (designed by Frank Lloyd Wright), Woodlawn Plantation, Washington's Grist Mill and Mount Vernon Estate.