page_title: Alexandria, Virginia
section_title: 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: Alexandria, Virginia / History / 20th century
context_page_description: Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 139,966, and in 2019, the population was estimated to be 159,428. Located along the western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately 7 miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.
  Like the rest of Northern Virginia, as well as Central Maryland, modern Alexandria has been influenced by its proximity to the U.S. capital. It is largely populated by professionals working in the federal civil service, in the U.S. military, or for one of the many private companies which contract to provide services to the federal government. One of Alexandria's largest employers is the U.S. Department of Defense. Another is the Institute for Defense Analyses. In 2005, the United States Patent and Trademark Office moved to Alexandria, and in 2017, so did the headquarters of the National Science Foundation.
  The historic center of Alexandria is known as Old Town. With its concentration of boutiques, restaurants, antique shops and theaters, it is a major draw for all who live in Alexandria as well for visitors.
context_section_description: At the turn of the 20th century the most common production in the city was glass, fertilizer, beer, and leather. The glass often went into beer bottles. Much of the Virginia Glass Company effort went to supply the demands of the Robert Portner Brewing Company, until fire destroyed the St. Asaph Street plant on February 18, 1905. The Old Dominion Glass Company also had a glass works fall to fire, then built a new one. The Belle Pre Bottle Company held a monopoly on a milk bottle that they patented, yet that organization only lasted 10 years. Most businesses were smaller where the business occupied the first floor of a building and the owner and family lived above. Prohibition closed Portner Brewing in 1916.
  President Woodrow Wilson visited the Virginia Shipbuilding Corporation on May 30, 1918, to drive the first rivet into the keel of the SS Gunston Hall. In 1930, Alexandria annexed the town adjacent to Potomac Yard incorporated in 1908 named Potomac. In 1938 the Mt. Vernon Drive-In cinema opened. In 1939, the segregated public library experienced a sit-in organized by Samuel Wilbert Tucker. In 1940, both the Robert Robinson Library, which is now the Alexandria Black History Museum, and the Vernon Theatre opened Jim Morrison of The Doors, as well as Cass Elliot and John Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas attended the George Washington High School in the 1950s.
  In 1955, then-Congressman and future President Gerald R. Ford and his family moved to Alexandria from Georgetown. The Fords remained in their Alexandria home during Ford's tenure as Vice President (1973-1974), as the Vice President did not yet have an official residence. Following the resignation of Richard Nixon, Ford spent his first 10 days as President in the house before moving to the White House.
  In March 1959, Lieutenant Colonel William Henry Whalen, the "highest-ranking American ever recruited as a mole by the Russian Intelligence Service", provided Colonel Sergei A. Edemski three classified Army manuals in exchange for $3,500 at a shopping center parking lot within the city. Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation later arrested Whalen on July 12, 1966, at his home in the city. In 1961 the original Woodrow Wilson Bridge opened.
  In 1965, the city integrated schools. In 1971, the city consolidated all high school students into T. C. Williams High School. The same year that head coach Herman Boone joined the school and lead the football team to a 13–0 season, a state championship, and a national championship runner-up; the basis for the 2000 film Remember the Titans where Boone was portrayed by Denzel Washington. In 1972, Clifford T. Cline purchased the 1890 Victorian house at 219 King Street and converted it into the Creole serving Two-Nineteen Restaurant. In 1973, Nora Lamborne and Beverly Beidler became the first women elected to the city council. In 1974, the Torpedo Factory Art Center opened. In 1983, the King Street–Old Town station, Braddock Road station, and Eisenhower Avenue station opened as the Washington Metro system expanded. In 1991, the Van Dorn Street station opened and Patricia Ticer became the first women elected mayor.
caption: Child laborers working at a glass factory in Alexandria, 1911. Photo by Lewis Hine.
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