Photo by Adedayo Dayo for Visit Alexandria
Freedom House Museum
The City of Alexandria is planning to make changes to 1315 Duke St. — the Freedom House Museum — to make it appear a bit closer to its original design.
Based on Civil War-era photographs, the city wants to change roof sloping, return windows to their original (smaller) size, replace some siding and install or replace copper gutters on the building.
The building was once part of the headquarters for the largest domestic slave trading firm in the United States. The City of Alexandria purchased the building in 2020, including the land, a three- and four-story, 9,810 square-foot building constructed primarily in the 1800s, all museum exhibits and furnishings, and an adjacent 1,648 square-foot parking lot.
From 1828 to 1861, five successive firms forced as many as 50,000 enslaved adults and children from the Chesapeake Bay area to the slave markets in Natchez, Miss., and New Orleans by foot or ship. The most infamous was Franklin & Armfield.
The city purchased the building from the Northern Virginia Urban League and has put in significantly effort in the past several years to update museum exhibits and honor the building's history and significance.
Residents are encouraged to get tickets to the museum in advance. City residents may visit free, other adults are $5 and children are $3.
