One of the state’s boldest examples of the Second Empire style, the dark brick Alexandria City Hall was designed in 1871 by Washington architect Adolph Cluss. The elongated composition is dominated by its central pavilion with a massive square dome, a scheme that recalls the Louvre in Paris. The building occupies the site of the 1817 city hall designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, which burned in 1871. Cluss incorporated into his design a clock tower based on that which had graced Latrobe’s work. The building, in the Alexandria Historic District, originally had town offices on the upper floors and market stalls in arcades below. The stalls have been removed, and the former Alexandria City Hall building now functions exclusively as city offices. The interior has undergone numerous remodelings but the Cameron Street façade remains without significant alteration. A Colonial Revival addition, filling the U-shaped courtyard, was added to the Alexandria City Hall in the early 1960s.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia