Market Square has been the center of civic activity for Alexandrians since the City’s founding in 1749. The current City Hall, built in 1871, is a source of community pride and serves as a workplace for more than 300 City employees. Alexandria’s City Hall and Market House was listed in 1984 on the National Register of Historic Places for its contributions to our understanding of architecture, commerce, and politics/government and was documented by the Historic American Building Survey (HABS). After many years of service, major updates are needed throughout City Hall to repair aging building components, improve operating systems, optimize space utilization, improve building circulation and wayfinding, and enhance security. The City Hall Renovation Project will provide a revitalized, safe, and sustainable environment to better serve City staff, Alexandria residents, and visitors well into the future.  

The City of Alexandria is committed to maintaining City Hall as the seat of government for many years to come. As the center of this historic city, it is important that this prominent renovation project be grounded in an understanding of how City Hall and Market Square, encompassing an entire city block, developed and changed over time. In June 2025, the Office of Historic Alexandria began the research for and preparation of a detailed documentary study of the block. This project is funded by The Commonwealth History Fund grant.

The first goal of this Documentary Study is to develop a historical context for the interpretation of the City Hall and Market Square block, and to identify, as precisely as possible, the owners, occupants, and built elements within the one-block area. These elements include, the Market House; Fairfax County Court House; Jail/Prison with Pillory/Whipping Post, Stocks, and a Necessary House; Town Hall; School House; Fire Companies; Scale House; Watch House; Market Sheds; Fish House; Taverns; Horse Markets; and Alleys. Within the block, chains-of-title will show how the block was carved up over time into smaller divisions and lots. Changes in lot lines and property divisions will be recorded in GIS to visually depict the changes. Brief historical sketches on the landowners and occupants, including white tenants, free blacks, and enslaved people, will be developed. 

The second goal of the study is to develop a narrative about the use of this block as an urban landscape of slavery, through Emancipation and Reconstruction, to the emergence of the Jim Crow era. While the use of this site by the municipal government is fairly-well understood, much less is known about the Courthouse and Market Square as sites associated with the buying and selling of enslaved people. Understanding how the City Hall and Market Square block, as a seat of local government and as an economic focal point, functioned as a space of enslavement and continued racial oppression is an important goal of this project.