Old Town Alexandria
This is Old Town Alexandria in Virginia, a magnet for visitors with its concentration of boutiques, restaurants, antique shops and theatres. This block on Prince Street is known as Captain’s Row and is comprised on the south side of mostly homes built in the 18th and 19th-century by Col. George Gilpin, a friend of George Washington and colonial cartographer. The houses on the north side of the block were built by Philadelphia sea captain John Harper, who was also a prominent wheat dealer in Alexandria. Captain’s Row was home to many colonial sea captains and Revolutionary patriots.
Local folklore says the Prince Street cobblestones were brought over from England in ships as ballast. Captured Hessians, the German mercenaries hired to fight for the British during the Revolutionary War, are said to have laid the cobblestones.
Old Town Alexandria
This is Old Town Alexandria in Virginia, a magnet for visitors with its concentration of boutiques, restaurants, antique shops and theatres. This block on Prince Street is known as Captain’s Row and is comprised on the south side of mostly homes built in the 18th and 19th-century by Col. George Gilpin, a friend of George Washington and colonial cartographer. The houses on the north side of the block were built by Philadelphia sea captain John Harper, who was also a prominent wheat dealer in Alexandria. Captain’s Row was home to many colonial sea captains and Revolutionary patriots.
Local folklore says the Prince Street cobblestones were brought over from England in ships as ballast. Captured Hessians, the German mercenaries hired to fight for the British during the Revolutionary War, are said to have laid the cobblestones.