Preferred Citation

[Item identification], Historic Alexandria Foundation Records, MS070, Alexandria Library, Local History and Special Collections, Alexandria, Virginia.

Biographical / Historical

The Historic Alexandria Foundation (HAF) is an organization of volunteers dedicated to preserving Alexandria's historic architecture. Initiated by members of the Alexandria Association, HAF obtained a charter from the State of Virginia in 1954.

Most of the earliest records originally belonged to Delos H. Smith, a charter member of HAF and its Board of Trustees. He also served on the Alexandria Board of Architectural Review from 1946 to 1953 and on the Old Town Civic Association Survey Committee.

Other early papers were collected by Magnum Weeks, a founding member, early president, and continuing director of HAF. Weeks also was a charter member of the Alexandria Association and a life member of the Alexandria Library Company.

Later papers in this collection relate to William Francis Smith's tenure as secretary and president of HAF. W. F. Smith is a retired banker who currently serves the community on the Alexandria Library Board, in the Alexandria Library Company, and as a local historian.

Content Description

Reports, minutes, correspondence, and surveys documenting HAF's formation, relationships to other volunteer organizations, and more than three decades of HAF's preservation projects and concerns. HAF also plaqued historic properties, sponsored the Alexandria Antique Show, and funded preservation grants. In addition, files of correspondence, programs, and publications from other historic preservation projects provide evidence for the history of preservation not only in Alexandria, but as a national movement during the late 1950's and early 1960's. Leaders in Alexandria' preservation movement appear in these records: Ethelyn Cox, Dorothy Kabler, William Kabler, J. C. Herbert Bryant, Howard Joynt, Hannon E. Norris, and Arthur J. Mourot. Among the historic sites documented are Lloyd House, Ramsey House, the McGuire House/Lyceum, Gadsby's Tavern, Carlyle House, the Alexandria Academy, and the 500 block of King Street. Other organizations mentioned include the Alexandria Association, the Gadsby's Tavern Society, the American Legion, the Alexandria Tourist Council, the Board of Architectural Review, the Alexandria Heritage Foundation, the Alexandria Historic Restoration and Preservation Commission, the Building Code Board of Appeals, and the Old Town Civic Association.

Arrangement

By function and subject, thereunder chronologically.

Related Material

Ethelyn Cox Collection (MS287)

Publications: Cox's 1976 book, Historic Alexandria, Virginia, Street by Street, also resulted from HAF's survey projects. Catalogs from the Alexandria Antique Shows (1984 to the present) document HAF's relationship with that event. Alexandria Academy Building research.

Vertical Files: Clippings and articles related to HAF as well as the HAF periodical, The Plaque, published since 1984.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Alexandria Academy
• Bryant, J. C. Herbert ((John Carlyle Herbert)), 1909-1983
• Carlyle House (Alexandria, Va.)
• Cox, Ethelyn, 1908-1988
• Gadsby's Tavern Museum
• Historic Alexandria Foundation
• Historic buildings -- Virginia -- Alexandria -- Conservation and restoration.
• Joynt, John Howard
• Kabler, Dorothy, 1918-2017
• Kabler, William
• Lloyd House
• Lyceum (Alexandria, Va.)
• Mourot, Arthur J., Dr. (Arthur James), 1904-1998
• Norris, Hannon E. (Hannon Edwards), 1898-1962
• The Alexandria Association