First Catholic Church in Virginia (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this roadside historical marker:

First Catholic Church in Virginia
A. D. 1795

This stone taken from the canal of the Potomac Company of which Washington and Fitzgerald were Directors commemorates the erection of the First Catholic Church in Virginia, A. D. 1795, which stood until 1839 about twenty feet behind this marker.

In grateful acknowledgement of their aid in establishing this church the three trees to the north of this stone have been dedicated as follows to General George Washington as subscriber to the building, Colonel John Fitzerald, his favorite Aide de Camp, as the collector of the building fund, Colonel Robert Hooe, Major of Alexandria, as the donor of the acre of land.

In commemoration of the bicentennial of the birth of George Washington this tablet was donated by the Holy Name Society of Sacred Heart Church (Vailsburg), Newark, N.J. on the 133rd anniversary of the funeral of Colonel John Fitzgerald, December 4, 1932.

Erected 1932 by Holy Name Society of Sacred Heart Church (Vailsburg), Newark, N.J.


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EDITOR'S NOTE: There is no sign of three 76 year old trees to the the north.

The following information was found on an earlier version of Saint Mary's Church's website. It is no longer available: “St. Mary’s was established in 1795, and is the oldest Catholic parish in the Commonwealth of Virginia. To fund the church, Colonel John Fitzgerald, friend of George Washington and an early mayor of Alexandria, took up a collection. According to local tradition, Washington himself made the first donation. A chapel was built at the south end of the city, on land still used today as St. Mary’s Cemetery.”

Excerpt from Robert Madison’s book, Walking with Washington. “George Washington’s diary shows that he and [John] Fitzgerald met together frequently. Fitzgerald’s home was on the southeast corner of King and Fairfax Streets where the Burke & Herbert Bank is today. Since there was no Catholic church in Alexandria at that time, services were sometimes held in Fitzgerald’s home. According to tradition, while dining there on Saint Patrick’s Day in 1788, George Washington contributed to a fund to build Alexandria’s first Catholic Church.”