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Alexandria Academy (Historical Marker)

GPS Coordinates: 38.8014051, -77.0475713

Alexandria Academy (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this roadside historical marker:

Alexandria Academy
On 17 Dec. 1785, George Washington endowed a school here in the recently established Alexandria Academy “for the purpose of educating orphan children.” In 1812, an association of free African Americans founded its own school here in space vacated by white students. Young Robert E. Lee attended another school in the Academy from 1818 to 1823, when it closed and the building was sold. During the Civil War the Academy served as a freedman’s hospital. Returned to the Alexandria School Board in 1884, the Alexandria Academy was used as a school and administrative facility until 1982. The Historic Alexandria Foundation restored it in 1999.

Erected 1999 by Virginia Department of Historic Resources. (Marker Number E-89.)

More about this marker. The Academy is listed as being at 604 Wolfe Street but the Marker is on Washington Street.

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