GPS City GuideAlexandriaCarlyle House

Stop 5 of 22 · Alexandria audio walking tour

Carlyle House

Old Town · 1751 · Georgian mansion by John Carlyle

What you'll hear here: about 90 seconds of narration about Carlyle House, and how it fits Old Town, written to be listened to on the spot rather than read at home.

Your walk down North Fairfax Street ends at Carlyle House, a stone Georgian mansion raised by indentured and enslaved labor. Built by Scottish merchant John Carlyle from 1751 to 1752 in the Georgian style, this stone house was raised with indentured and slave labor. Architecturally it is unique: the only stone 18th-century Palladian Revival-style residence in Alexandria, with two stone chimneys that punctuate its roofline.

Inside, notice how the plan divides service from ceremony - two sets of stairs: the main, wider stairs in the center linking the first and second floors, and the narrower servant stairs on the right that climb from the ground to the first and second floors. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969 and was restored in 1976, a reminder that what you see today has been carefully preserved. You stand between Cameron and King Street; one block to the west sits Gadsby's Tavern and three blocks west is Christ Church.

Three blocks to the south is the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Shop; two blocks to the east are the Torpedo Factory Art Center and the Alexandria Archaeology Museum. Picture Gadsby's Tavern a block west and the Torpedo Factory two blocks east from here.

Where it is

Coordinates
38.80528, -77.04222
Area
Old Town
Era
1751 · Georgian mansion by John Carlyle
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Three stops free. No account needed. The audio plays itself as you walk.