City of Alexandria, Virginia
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MEMORANDUM
DATE: FEBRUARY 7, 2018
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL
FROM: MARK B. JINKS, CITY MANAGER /s/
DOCKET TITLE:
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National Trust Planning Grant for Freedom House Museum. Consideration of a Grant Application to the National Trust For Historic Preservation's African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund in the Amount of $125,000 to Fund a Museum Planning Grant as Part of a Collaboration Between the Office of Historic Alexandria and the Northern Virginia Urban League.
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ISSUE: Consideration of approval for the Office of Historic Alexandria (OHA) to apply for a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation's African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund in the amount of $125,000.
RECOMMENDATION: That City Council authorize the City Manager to:
1) Endorse the submission of a pre-application Letter of Intent to the National Trust for Historic Preservation's African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, requesting funding for a museum planning grant;
2) If selected to apply to the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund in April, approve a grant request in the amount of $125,000; and
3) Execute all necessary documents that may be required.
BACKGROUND: The Freedom House Museum, located at 1315 Duke Street, was opened to the public by the Northern Virginia Urban League in 2008, inside the remaining building of the former Franklin & Armfield slave trading complex. The site, known as the Alexandria Slave Pen, was one of the most notorious slave trading firms in the country between 1828 and 1861. Today, the Freedom House Museum occupies an actual slave pen in the building's lower level and provides an overview of the domestic slave trade in Alexandria and the United States, featuring known stories of enslaved men, women, and children held at the site.
Ten years later, the Norther...
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