|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
HONG
KONG
|
|
|
|
|
|
CANADA
|
|
|
|
EUROPE
|
|
|
|
USA
|
|
|
|
INDONESIA
|
|
|
|
|
SINGAPORE
|
|
|
|
|
|
THAILAND
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Philippines |
|
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.
|
|
|
|