Rendering courtesy of City of Alexandria
A rendering of proposed upgrades to Point Lumley Park in Alexandria.
The City's Board of Architectural Review will take a look on May 7 at concept plans for Alexandria's waterfront park, Point Lumley Park, at 3 Duke St. Renderings show a shade structure, kayak launch, seating, historic markers and more.
The park is located near several businesses, including Hotel Indigo as well as the hotel's Hummingbird restaurant; The Old Dominion Boat Club, and Ada's on the River and Barca.
Map courtesy of City of Alexandria.
Port Lumley Park is located on Alexandria's waterfront.
Historical Marker Database notes that Port Lumley has been known by that name since at least the 1760s: An extensive amount of man-made land hides the original topographical feature that characterized the southernmost tip of Alexandria's crescent-shaped bay.
This area was known from at least the 1760s as Point Lumley. As it does today, the town owned the tip of the point. The Town Trustees (the predecessors to today's City Council) funded the establishment of a road that cut through the steep bank, extending Duke Street to the river's edge. Here, the Trustees leased parts of Point Lumley for an early shipbuilding business.
Rendering courtesy of City of Alexandria
Rendering of shade structure at Point Lumley Park in Alexandria.
Pieces of information survive to tell us about Alexandria's first shipbuilding operation. An English visitor to Alexandria in 1759 named Reverend Andrew Burnaby observed, "The town is built upon an arc of this bay; at one extremity of which is a wharf; at the other a dock for building ships; with water sufficiently deep to launch a vessel of any rate or magnitude." Burnaby very likely saw and described Thomas Fleming's shipyard located here on Point Lumley.
Shipping records account for 18 ships constructed in Alexandria in the years between 1752 and 1776. Fleming likely built or supervised the construction of many of these vessels until he retired around 1780.
