1100
Wilkes Street
Cluster of twelve adjacent burial grounds stretching across the 1100 block of Wilkes Street, including Methodist Protestant, Presbyterian, Quaker, Black Methodist (Bethel), Hebrew (Beth El), Catholic, and private cemeteries laid out from c.1809 onward as the city outgrew its early-republic churchyards.
- 1809approx
- Cemetery complex
- Extant
- Old and Historic Alexandria District
Place narrative
By the 1800s Alexandria’s colonial-era churchyards inside the city grid — Christ Church, Old Presbyterian Meeting House, the Quaker burial yard — were full. Beginning in 1809 the city’s congregations began acquiring adjacent parcels along Wilkes Street west of the historic district to lay out new burial grounds. Twelve such cemeteries operated across the 1100 block and adjoining streets: Methodist Protestant, Presbyterian, Quaker, Bethel (Black Methodist), Beth El Hebrew (founded 1859, the oldest Jewish cemetery in Virginia), St. Mary’s Catholic, and several private family lots. [1] Office of Historic Alexandria walking-tour materials Website
The complex retains its nineteenth-century landscape and headstone plantings substantially intact and is a contributing element of the Old and Historic Alexandria District. Each constituent cemetery is administered by its parent congregation or a successor trust.
Timeline
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The building
- Cemetery complex
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Nearby in time
Bruce Andersen from Washington, DC · via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0 7 Russell Road
Second of the original DC southwestern boundary stones, placed 1791-1792. NRHP-listed 1991.
APK · via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 Jones Point Park
Frame lighthouse built 1855 at the south boundary stone of the original District of Columbia; one of the few surviving Potomac River inland …
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Bruce Andersen from Washington, DC · via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0 King Street
Fourth of the original DC southwestern boundary stones; the marker straddles the Alexandria-Arlington line. NRHP-listed 1991.
APK · via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 523 Queen Street
Two-story brick "spite house" 7 feet 6 inches wide, infilling the alley between 521 and 525 Queen Street. Built in 1830 by to block alley …
Nearby in space
606 South Washington Street 606 South Washington Street
Mid-19th-century chapel, part of Alexandria's antebellum African Methodist Episcopal congregation. NRHP-listed 2004.
411 South Columbus Street 411 South Columbus Street
Late-19th-century Black fraternal lodge, part of Alexandria's African-American civic infrastructure during Jim Crow. NRHP-listed 2004.
APK · via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 313 South Alfred Street
One of the oldest African-American Baptist congregations in the United States, founded in 1803; present sanctuary erected 1855. NRHP-listed …
814 Duke Street 814 Duke Street
Townhouse associated with Dr. Albert Johnson, a 19th-century African-American physician in Alexandria. NRHP-listed 2004.
Now
No current occupant on file. Are you, or someone you know, the present occupant? Claim this place to add operating hours, a current photo, and a short note.
Wilkes Street
Named for John Wilkes — English politician and Patriot ally, c. 1796.
Sources
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1.
Office of Historic Alexandria, walking-tour and historic-marker brochures, accessed 2026-05-01.
Website
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