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Virginia: Tidewater and Piedmont » Alexandria » Old Town » Lyceum Hall

Lyceum Hall

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1839, attributed to Benjamin Hallowell. 1974, restoration, Carroll Curtice. 201 S. Washington St. Open to the public
  • (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)
  • (Richard Guy Wilson)
  • (Richard L. Longstreth)
  • (Richard L. Longstreth)
  • (Virginia Division of Historic Resources)

One of Virginia's preeminent Greek Revival structures, the Lyceum, with a library and museum on the ground floor and a lecture hall upstairs, served as the intellectual center of antebellum Alexandria. Hallowell, the head of the group that organized the Lyceum Company in 1838, described the building as having “four fluted columns, with a triglyph cornice … surrounded with an iron railing and a beautiful yard of flowers.” Converted into a residence after the Civil War, it was restored as a museum for the city of Alexandria in connection with the U.S. Bicentennial, and a lecture hall was reinstalled upstairs. It contains exhibits on the history of Alexandria.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Richard Guy Wilson et al.
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Data

What's Nearby

Swann-Daingerfield House
Confederate Monument (Removed)
Patton-Fowle House
Downtown Baptist Church (First Baptist Church)
Pier 1 (Virginia Public Service Company Building)

Citation

Richard Guy Wilson et al., "Lyceum Hall", [Alexandria, Virginia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VA-01-AL29.

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