On April 23, 1897, Black Alexandria teenager Joseph H. McCoy was lynched on a lamppost at this corner after his white employer, Richard Lacy, alleged that McCoy had sexually assaulted his daughter, an accusation like those routinely used against Black males to enforce domination and provoke racial terror within the African American community. McCoy was arrested without a warrant and held at the police station at present-day City Hall. After hundreds of white men repeatedly attacked the station, the mob broke through his cell door, dragged him one block to this location, shot him several times, bludgeoned him with an ax, and hanged him. The Alexandria Gazette reported that “other indignities were heaped upon his quivering remains,” language suggesting dismemberment, including castration, that was often inflicted on Black males who were lynched, especially in cases involving a perceived indignity to a white female. Virginia Governor Charles O'Farrell investigated the lynching and blamed Alexandria Mayor Luther Thompson for failing to respond to repeated attacks despite knowing the mob intended to kill McCoy. No officials or law enforcement were held accountable, no members of the white mob were arrested for his murder, and several Black men were instead arrested based on rumors of retaliation. When McCoy's aunt viewed her nephew's body, she declared, “As the people killed him, they will have to bury him.” At the funeral, Rev. William Gaines of Roberts Chapel said, “I trust that the time will soon come when all people will realize the fact that the same judgment which they measure to others will be measured to them at the bar of God.” Joseph H. McCoy was buried in a pauper's grave at Penny Hill Cemetery.