Greek Revival lines mark the Athenaeum, a gallery of fine arts and performance venue at Lee and Prince streets in Alexandria. This building has housed the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association since 1964 and is now part of the Virginia Trust; it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Its lines are an important example of Greek Revival architecture, and those classical details still read clearly from the street.
The land beneath your feet once belonged to William Fairfax and was even surveyed by George Washington. The edifice you face was built between 1851 and 1852 at the intersection of Lee and Prince streets to serve as the office of the Bank of the Old Dominion — a bank at the head of Captains’ Row — and it is reported that Robert E. Lee had an account here. The bank operated on this corner until the Civil War, when Alexandria was occupied by Union forces and the building became the abode of the U.S. Commissary Quartermaster; the Bank of the Old Dominion closed in 1862, and the structure later again hosted a bank.
Notice the cobblestones underfoot, part of the same 18th-century Captains' Row block visible today.