Alexandria, Virginia

Alexandria, Virginia, was the county seat of Fairfax from 1742 to 1800, was organized on 13th of July 1749, incorporated by the Assembly of Virginia in 1779, ceded to the Federal Government in 1789, and retroceded to Virginia in July 1846. The first boundary stone of the Federal District was laid there on 15th of April 1791, and the city capitulated to the British on 38th of August 1814. Market Square was the historic center of the town, where Braddock’s troops were drilled in 1755 and news of his defeat at Fort Duquesne was announced to the country on 16th of July 1755. The Carlyle House on Fairfax Street served as General Braddock’s headquarters during the French and Indian War and as the site of a council of Royal Governors Dinwiddie of Virginia, Shirley of Massachusetts, Delancy of New York, Morris of Pennsylvania, and Sharp of Maryland, where British officials in council first suggested taxing the American colonies; on this occasion Washington received his appointment as aide to General Braddock. In 1785, a conference there between the governors of Virginia and Maryland led to a convention of delegates from all the states at Philadelphia in 1787, which framed the Constitution of the United States. In Market Square stood the old Fairfax County courthouse, where the freeholders of the town and county assembled on 18th of July 1774, George Washington presided, and George Mason drew up the Fairfax County Resolutions protesting British tyranny. The courthouse was also the starting point of the survey of the Federal District in 1791; there George Washington cast his last vote in 1799, and his will was probated on 20th of January 1800. At the Old City Tavern at Royal and Cameron Streets, Washington had his headquarters as Colonel of Virginia Militia while drilling troops in 1754; the first celebration of the adoption of the Federal Constitution was held there on 27th of June 1788; from its doorway on 16th of April 1789, on his way to his first inauguration, George Washington responded to a farewell address by Mayor Colonel Dennis Ramsey on behalf of Alexandria’s citizens; and there General Washington issued his last military order when receiving the Independent Blues in November 1799.

Alexandria, Virginia · United States