Mayor Alyia Gaskins, fourth from right, prepares to lead dignitaries in cutting the ribbon to celebrate the end of the exterior restoration of Freedom House Nov.8 on Duke Street in Old Town.
The Freedom House Museum, one of Alexandria’s most significant landmarks, reopened its doors with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Nov. 8 that marked the completion of an extensive exterior rehabilitation project.
Located at 1315 Duke Street, the museum is a solemn reminder of the city’s role in the domestic slave trade and now serves as a beacon for education, reflection and reconciliation.
“From 1828 to 1861, thousands of men, women and children were trafficked through this building to the labor markets of the deep south,” said Gretchen Bulova, Director of the Office of Historic Alexandria. “Today this museum honors the lives and experiences of the enslaved and the free Black people who lived in and were trafficked through Alexandria.”
Originally the headquarters of Franklin & Armfield, one of the largest slave-trading firms in the United States, the building went on to house five successive slave dealers.
“This work is about more than bricks and mortar,” Bulova said. “It’s about ensuring that this space continues to bear witness to the history of the domestic slave trade and the strength of the people whose lives were forever changed here.”
The city purchased the building in 2020 and worked with the community to envision the future of the museum.
“The first phase of the restoration was to redo the front façade and then the exterior,” Bulova said. “We needed, as we say in museum field, to ‘seal the building’s envelop’ -- to repoint brick and restore windows. What you are seeing today is what the building looked like pre-1861, which we call the period of significance, which sadly reflects that period of the trafficking of enslaved people.”
In addition to Bulova, the event featured remarks from Mayor Alyia Gaskins and Audrey Davis, Director of the Division of African American History.
“This museum is an intentional declaration that we will not forget our history,” Gaskins said. “We will choose to be intentional in telling the stories of our past and to make sure we create spaces for all to learn about the horrors of the racism, the trauma and the terror of slavery. But we also commit to tell the story in another way – to tell of the resilience and the perseverance and the hope and the beauty of Black people.”
The rehabilitation began in June 2024 and was completed ahead of schedule. Key improvements included modifying the roofline to a side gable design, adjusting window openings to match Civil War-era photographs, and renewing woodwork and siding.
The rehabilitation, led by Oak Grove Restoration Company and Al Cox, FAIA emeritus, was supported by the Commonwealth of Virginia, a Save America’s Treasures grant, and individual donors.
“The exterior restoration is the first major step and now we will start fundraising to do some interior work,” Bulova said. “That will include making the basement and second floor accessible then redoing all of the exhibitions to really tell the story of the domestic slave trade. I’m optimistic we can do this in the next three years.”
www.alexandriava.gov/FreedomHouse