Saint Mary's Catholic Parish (Historical Marker)
GPS Coordinates: 38.8018551, -77.0440989
Closest Address: 310 South Royal Street, Alexandria, VA 22314

Here follows the inscription written on this roadside historical marker:
Saint Mary's Catholic Parish
Founded 1795
by
Very Rev. Francis Jonatus Neale, S.J.
of Georgetown College
and
Colonel John Fitzgerald, Aide de Camp to General George Washington and one time Mayor of Alexandria
Prior to 1785, the Catholic community of Alexandria assisted at Holy Mass in a log building and later at the home of Colonel Fitzgerald.
The land for the original church at South Washington and Church Streets was donated of March 17, 1788 by Colonel Robert T. Hooe, a protestant gentlemen.
The second church, in Chapel Alley, was acquired from the Methodist congregation in 1810.
The sanctuary and the major portion of the present church were erected in 1826 by the Rev. Joseph W. Fairclough.
Presented the 22nd day of June 1958 by Porto Caravan, Order of Alhambra.
Erected 1958 by Porto Caravan, Order of Alhambra.
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Here follows an excerpt from the 1970 Fairfax County Master Inventory of Historic Sites which contained entries from the Historic American Buildings Survey Inventory:
Saint Mary's Church is the oldest Catholic church within the present boundaries of Fairfax County. Constructed in 1858 on land donated by the Hamill family, long-time local residents, it was built to serve the needs of the Irish immigrants who came to Fairfax County to work on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. It is a rectangular white frame structure, topped by a spire, with eleven Gothic arched windows, one on each side being filled with stained glass. The structure has never been altered and only the pews, windows, doors and floor have been replaced. The ceiling is of patterned, white-painted tin.
It was close to this church that Clara Barton nursed the wounded soldiers during the second Battle of Manassas, and a plaque at the church entrance notes that the American Red Cross has officially recognized the significance of Saint Mary's Church. During the battle, Federal troops used the original church pews for firewood, and local tradition holds that later, upon hearing this story, President Ulysses S. Grant ordered the pews replaced with new ones which are still in use.
A grotto in honor of Our Lady of Lourdes was erected in the churchyard next to the cemetery in 1927. Many of the soldiers slain in the Battle of Second Manassas are said to be buried in the churchyard in unmarked graves.
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Here follows an excerpt from the Welcome to the St. Mary Catholic Church website:
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.
In 1810, St. Mary’s moved to its present location in the heart of the city – 310 South Royal Street. Throughout the 1800s, St. Mary’s played a crucial role in the growth of Catholicism in Virginia. The many mission churches which St. Mary’s established have gone on to become independent parishes within the Diocese of Arlington. Today St. Mary’s has more parishioners than Alexandria had residents when the city was founded.