Old Town and its neighboring blocks make up the Alexandria Historic District, a National Historic Landmark District, and you are inside it now. This corner of Alexandria contains one of the nation’s best-preserved assemblages of late-18th and early-19th century urban architecture. Locally designated as the Old and Historic Alexandria district in 1946 and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966, the place you’re in carries layers of civic care and recognition.
The city itself was chartered in 1748, its center laid out as a grid of streets on the west bank of the Potomac River — one of the surveyors involved in that work was the future United States President George Washington. Alexandria grew to become a major seaport serving much of northern Virginia, its streets once lined with Federal-style townhouses. It remained a major port dealing principally in grain and tobacco until the American Civil War, and you can still see elements of that mercantile life in several surviving waterfront warehouses.
Within this district are other landmarks you may recognize, including Christ Church and Gadsby’s Tavern Museum. Christ Church and Gadsby's Tavern wait within these blocks, and toward the river the surviving warehouses still remember the grain and tobacco trade.