609
Oronoco Street
Federal-style brick house at 609 Oronoco Street where Quaker educator Benjamin Hallowell Benjamin Hallowell b. 1799 · d. 1877 Quaker educator, scientist, and surveyor who ran a boys' boarding school at 609 Oronoco Street from 1824 onward. received his pre–West Point tutoring from Hallowell in 1824–1825. ran a boys’ classical school from 1824. Robert E. Lee Robert E. Lee b. 1807 · d. 1870 United States Army officer who spent much of his childhood in Alexandria at the house on Oronoco Street before his West Point appointment, and who later commanded Confederate … received his pre–West Point tutoring here in 1824–1825.
- 1820approx
- Federal
- Extant
- Old and Historic Alexandria District
Place narrative
Benjamin Hallowell, a Pennsylvania-born Quaker mathematician and surveyor, opened his Alexandria boys’ school in 1824 in the rented Federal-style house at 609 Oronoco Street, almost directly across the street from the Lee family’s Boyhood Home. Hallowell prepared boys in mathematics and natural philosophy for college and the federal service academies; among his students was the young Robert E. Lee, whom he tutored in 1824–1825 ahead of Lee’s appointment to West Point. [1] Powell, History of Old Alexandria, 1928 Book
The school operated at 609 Oronoco through the 1830s before relocating to a larger purpose-built campus elsewhere in the city. The Oronoco Street house survives as a contributing structure of the Old and Historic Alexandria District.
Timeline
3 chronological entries across 1 era.
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Robert E. Lee received his pre–West Point tutoring from Benjamin Hallowell here in 1823–1825. [1] Source Powell, History of Old Alexandria, 1928
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Robert E. Lee received his pre–West Point tutoring from Benjamin Hallowell here in 1824–1825. [1] Source Powell, History of Old Alexandria, 1928
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Benjamin Hallowell ran his boys' classical school at 609 Oronoco Street from 1824 onward. [1] Source Powell, History of Old Alexandria, 1928
The building
- Federal
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Connected
Robert E. Lee
b. 1807 · d. 1870
United States Army officer who spent much of his childhood in Alexandria at the house on Oronoco Street before his West Point appointment, and who later commanded Confederate …
Visitor notable · Institutional · %!d(float64=1823)–%!d(float64=1825)
Benjamin Hallowell
b. 1799 · d. 1877
Quaker educator, scientist, and surveyor who ran a boys' boarding school at 609 Oronoco Street from 1824 onward. received his pre–West Point tutoring from Hallowell in 1824–1825.
Operator · Institutional · %!d(float64=1824)–%!d(float64=1842)
Nearby in time
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Federal-Greek Revival 1817 sanctuary, the second oldest Episcopal congregation in Alexandria after Christ Church. NRHP-listed 1985.
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Three brick rowhouses built ca. 1849 by Moses Hepburn, a free Black property owner and one of antebellum Alexandria's wealthiest African …
The original uploader was Ser Amantio di Nicolao at English Wikipedia . · via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 3.0 614 Oronoco Street
Federal-style house built in 1785 by Philip Richard Fendall on land acquired from the Lee family. Occupied by a rotating cast of Lee family …
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Federal-style 1820s townhouse later occupied by mayor and judge Henry Daingerfield's family. NRHP-listed 2019.
Nearby in space
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The original uploader was Ser Amantio di Nicolao at English Wikipedia . · via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 3.0 614 Oronoco Street
Federal-style house built in 1785 by Philip Richard Fendall on land acquired from the Lee family. Occupied by a rotating cast of Lee family …
APK · via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 607 Oronoco Street
Federal-era house at 607 Oronoco Street rented by Anne Carter Lee from about 1812; principal childhood residence of her son Robert E. Lee …
Placeholder illustration of Alexandria Library 1939. Seed placeholder — KingSt.com, 2026. To be replaced with archival photograph. 717 Queen Street
Alexandria's first free public library, opened on Queen Street in 1937, and site of a sit-in on August 21, 1939 that is among the earliest …
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Old Loyd [i.e. Lloyd] House, Alexandria, Va. · Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · http://www.loc.gov/item/2016803285/ 220 North Washington Street
Late-Georgian 1797 townhouse at the corner of North Washington and Queen built by merchant John Wise. Charles Lee, U.S. Attorney General and …
Now
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Oronoco Street
Named for Oronoco — a sweet variety of tobacco grown around the Chesapeake, c. 1749.
Interpretive signs nearby
The City of Alexandria has installed 6 historical interpretive signs within walking distance of this place. Each links to the actual sign image on alexandriava.gov.
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614 Oronoco St
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607 Oronoco St
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Washington-Rochambeau Route -- Alexandria Encampment
609 Oronoco St
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414 N Washington
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515 N Washington St
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City Jail: A Site of Racial Terror in Alexandria: Lynching of Benjamin Thomas, 1899
401 N. St. Asaph
Sources
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1.
Mary G. Powell, The History of Old Alexandria, Virginia, from July 13, 1749 to May 24, 1861, Richmond: William Byrd Press, 1928.
Book
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