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OLD TOWNE, ALEXANDRIA Walking through colonial America -3
Source: Inquirer
Author: Roland G. Simbulan
Date: 2000-07-09
 
Educational



The Lyceum, originally built in 1839 as a cultural

center and library, was also used as a hospital

during the Civil War. It is now Alexandria's History

Museum. Appropriately, the Lyceum's Greek Revival

structure today serves as an educational and

cultural focal point. Its Lecture Hall was where

philosophers, politicians and scientists spoke

before the Civil War, and now it still hosts a

variety of public events.



When I last visited Old Towne, there was an

interesting exhibit at the Lyceum: ''The Age of

Elegance,'' which gave a glimpse of the American

aristocrats' clothes and accessories in the 18th

century. It showed the art of dress and clothing as

a ritual of conspicuous bourgeois consumption.



And then there's the Ramsay House which was

originally built in 1724 by William Ramsay, a

Scottish tobacco merchant and city founder. If

you ever get lost in Old Towne, look up this house,

the oldest in Alexandria. It now conveniently

serves as the city's visitor center along King

Street.



There is also the Friendship Fire House which you

shouldn't miss. It was established in 1774 and was

the first volunteer fire company in Alexandria. The

firehouse retains its metal tracks on the original

scrub-pine floor inside, which guided horse-drawn

fire carriages.



Also still standing is the Old Presbyterian Meeting

House, built in 1774 and the site of the memorial

services for George Washington. His pew is

preserved with a marker at Christ Church, the

city's oldest church, where Robert E. Lee was

confirmed. The church holds the graves of the

city's early residents and the veterans of the

American Revolution. This church is difficult to

overlook because of its beautifully carved

sandstone door, and its Greek and Romanesque

Revival architecture marked by a corner tower and

a semi-circular masonry arch on short fat columns.



The Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary is now a shop

museum. But from 1792 to 1934, this was the local

botika--a thriving drugstore. Opened in 1792 by a

young Quaker pharmacist, Edward Stabler, the

shop was in business for 141 years until it closed

down during the Great Depression.



Prominent regular patrons included the

Washingtons, Mason, Lee and Daniel Webster.

Most of the Apothecary's original interior woodwork

is well preserved, as well as the company records

and prescriptions.



In Alexandria, there is also the Gunston Hall

Plantation. Built in 1755, it was the colonial

plantation home of George Mason, the author of

the Virginia Declaration of Rights which became the

basis for the Bill of Rights of the US Constitution. It

was that Constitution which declared ''equality for

all men,'' though, one might note, black slavery

and non-suffrage for women were to remain

institutions in America for more than a century

afterwards.



Add to this the fact that these principles of human

rights were not then intended to apply for the next

150 years to the colored peoples of the Philippines,

Cuba, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Guam or the South

Pacific!



Active



Located on Alexandria's historic waterfront at the

foot of Old Towne's King Street is the Torpedo

Factory Art Center. Truly an example of ''swords

turned into plowshares,'' the factory was a leading

manufacturer of torpedoes for the US Navy during

World Wars I and II.



This was a very active US Naval Torpedo Station

during World War II, with 5,000 employees and

three daily work shifts seven days a week. It was

converted in 1974 into an art center and has since

become a sort of mecca for art in metropolitan

Washington, D.C.



Overlooking the Potomac River, the former factory

now houses the studios of 160 professional artists,

making Alexandria one of the top 25 art

destinations in America, according to the American

Style Magazine in 1998. The clipper ships that

made this port the third busiest in the US colonies

are gone, but the waterfront remains vibrant.



Coffee shops abound in Old Towne, with one in

almost every block. One of them, a favorite

hangout of maverick intellectuals, artists,

nonconformists or simply the discriminating

coffee-drinkers in Alexandria, is Misha's Coffee

Roaster & Coffeehouse.



Unofficially, I can recommend it as the best

coffeehouse in the entire Washington, D.C.

metropolitan area (including its suburbs in Virginia

and Maryland).



It was an instant hit for me, even before my sister

Teresa and her husband Romel Simon introduced

Misha's as having ''the best coffee you'll ever

have.'' Misha's has its own seven-foot-tall roaster

machine sitting right beside the coffee tables and

surrounded by heavy bean bags from such places

as Papua New Guinea, Puerto Rico and Ethiopia.



Sipping coffee in this shop--or anywhere else in

the magical ''back to the future'' Old Towne--is

one of the best ways of looking back at an

America that once had a taste of a glorious

anti-colonial revolution.
 

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