Freedom House Museum Plans Ribbon Cutting After Exterior Renovation Project

ALEXANDRIA, VA — The Freedom House Museum in Alexandria is set to reopen after getting an exterior refresh.

The Office of Historic Alexandria will reopen the museum at 1315 Duke Street on Nov. 6, followed by a ribbon cutting at 1 p.m. on Nov. 8. Experts will be on site from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Nov. 8. to share details about the exterior renovations.

The museum had been temporarily closed due to its exterior renovation project, which was aimed at protecting the building and returning to some pre-Civil War features. The exterior renovations had started in June 2024. The museum's temporary closure was due to completion of the front facade and new door installations. The new front facade of the museum will help tell the story of the location's role in the domestic slave trade in Alexandria, according to the Office of Historic Alexandria.

The work has included adjusting west elevation window openings to appear as they did in Civil War photographs, returning 12-over-12 sash single-hung windows and shutters to the front, updating the building colors using scientific paint analysis, replacing the 1905 roof with a side-gable roof and returning a second entryway on the first floor.

The next phase of renovations at Freedom House Museum will involve engineers and preservation specialists designing ways to make the interior accessible.

According to the Office of Historic Alexandria, historical documentation of the building guided the renovation project. The Oak Grove Restoration Company led the project on behalf of the City of Alexandria with funding from private donations, state funds, and a Save America’s Treasures grant from the Historic Preservation Fund administered by the National Park Service.

The Freedom House Museum is the former site of a slave jail for Franklin and Armfield, one of the country's largest slave trading companies. According to the city's website, the location was used as a slave jail or pen between 1828 and 1836, holding slaves shipped from Northern Virginia to cotton and sugar plantations in the South. After Franklin and Armfield, the complex was used by other slave trading companies. The complex is associated with trafficking thousands of Black men, women and children between 1828 and 1861. Today, it is a museum documenting the history of Alexandria's enslaved and free Black people. The city purchased Freedom House from the Urban League of Northern Virginia in 2020.