Christ Church Alexandria: Historical Context
Christ Church Alexandria, at 118 North Washington Street, opened in 1773 as the church of Fairfax Parish. Designed by James Wren in the colonial Georgian style, it was not consecrated until January 14, 1814, more than four decades after its completion, when the Rt. Rev. Thomas Claggett, Bishop of Maryland, consecrated it under the name Christ Church. Galleries were added in 1787 and the bell tower in 1818.
The wineglass pulpit is a later addition, installed when the church closed for extensive renovations in 1891. The building was repainted, refitted, and recarpeted; the pews were upholstered, and the interior was restored as nearly as practicable to its original appearance. The work reflected the Colonial Revival taste of the period and was intended in part to draw visitors, who soon arrived in numbers: in 1892 the Washington, Alexandria & Mount Vernon Railway began running electric cars between Alexandria and Mount Vernon, passing Christ Church on its route along King Street. The line was extended to Washington in 1896 and operated until 1932. The pulpit’s form echoes the one at the 1774 Pohick Church, several miles south of Alexandria, near the intersection of Telegraph Road and US Route 1.
Inside, panels bearing the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Golden Rule date from the church’s earliest years and remain in place.
George Washington regularly attended services at Christ Church, and many prominent Northern Virginia families, among them the Lees and the Masons, were part of its congregation.
To explore the broader story of Alexandria’s documented Revolutionary War patriots and burials across the city, visit our Alexandria Revolutionary War Patriots page.
On April 20, 1809, the vestry recorded the following order:
That the right of burial in the Episcopal Church Yard to cease after the first day of May next, and that the Warden or Treasurer be authorized to make sale of lots in the new burial ground to any person.
From May 1, 1809, burials moved to the parish’s new ground on Wilkes Street, today’s Christ Church Episcopal Cemetery, one of the thirteen cemeteries in the Wilkes Street Cemetery Complex. (The congregation was still known as the Fairfax Parish church; it formally took the name Christ Church at its consecration in 1814.) Burials in the old churchyard did not stop entirely. In God and the Generals, Charleen Smith-Riedel identifies Charles Bennett as the last person buried there, in 1841. Bennett’s burial was an exception granted in recognition of his bequest of much of his wealth to the town, and Alexandria’s Common Council erected a large obelisk in his honor. The churchyard received one more interment, a collective one: on December 27, 1879, the remains of 34 Confederate soldiers, originally buried in the Alexandria National Cemetery during the Civil War, were reinterred in a single large grave beside the church.
When the parish hall was built in 1855, several graves came to light. In May 1871, workers digging basements on Columbus Street near Cameron Street reportedly uncovered what was believed to be the remains of “at least thirty people,” but on closer examination the find turned out to be decayed wood.
During the Civil War and the construction of the two parish halls, most of the churchyard’s gravestones were moved, and many were carried off and reused as sidewalks and steps at nearby Old Town homes. The churchyard remains a meaningful place to visit, and the church has served its congregation continuously since 1773.
LTC Philip Marsteller, The Assistant Deputy Quartermaster General of the Revolutionary Army.
Lieutenant Colonel Philip B. Marsteller, baptized Philippus Balthasar, was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1741 or 1742.
During the Revolutionary War, he was lieutenant colonel of the 1st Battalion, Lancaster County Associators, in 1777, and served as an assistant deputy quartermaster general of the Continental Army. In July 1775, he was a member of the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention.
After the war, Marsteller moved to Alexandria, where in 1787 he obtained a license to retail goods. He served on the city council from 1788 to 1794 and again in 1798–99, and as a justice of the Hustings Court at several times in the late 18th century.
He was mayor of Alexandria in 1791–92 and a charter member of the Alexandria Library Company in 1794.
Over the years he lived on Prince and Water Streets and at the southeast corner of Washington and Wolfe Streets, and he ran an auction and commission business with his son as Philip Marsteller and Son.
He had three sons: Philip G., Ferdinand, and Lewis. Lewis died of wounds received in the Whiskey Insurrection in western Pennsylvania. Philip G. Marsteller and his wife, Christiana, owned Spring Garden Farm, where the Presbyterian Cemetery was established; he is buried in the Presbyterian Cemetery.
At George Washington’s funeral at Mount Vernon on December 18, 1799, Marsteller served as one of the six honorary pallbearers, walking on the right side of the coffin. He is said to have been a Mason in Pennsylvania, but no record of his lodge has been found, and he was the only one of the six pallbearers who was not a member of Alexandria’s Lodge No. 22.
Marsteller died in 1803 and was buried in the churchyard of Christ Church Alexandria. His original gravestone was lost during the Civil War.
| PHILIP MARSTELLER 1741 – 1803 Lieut. Col. U.S.A., Revolutionary War 1st Battalion, Lancaster County Pennsylvania Associators, 1777 Assistant Deputy Quartermaster General Member of The Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention, July 1775 |
Colonel Charles Simms Sr. (1755–1819) Revolutionary War Officer and Mayor of Alexandria
Colonel Charles Simms Sr. was a Revolutionary War officer and civic leader in early Alexandria. Born in 1755, he served in the 2nd Virginia Regiment of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.
After the war, Simms became a leading figure in Alexandria’s civic life. He was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, the organization of Continental Army officers.
A friend of George Washington, Simms was one of the six honorary pallbearers at Washington’s funeral at Mount Vernon on December 18, 1799, walking beside the coffin with several other Alexandrians.
Simms later served as mayor of Alexandria, an office he held in 1814, the year British warships occupied the town.
Colonel Simms died in Alexandria on August 30, 1819, and was buried in the Christ Church Alexandria churchyard.
| Sacred to the memory of Co. CHARLES SIMMS An officer of the Army of Independence, and for many years an honored Citizen of Alexandria, & Mayor of that City in 1814. He Died in the year 1819 He was a Member of the Society of the Cincinnati & a friend of General Washington |
Isaac Pierce (Died March 26, 1771) Is the Oldest Legible Gravestone in Alexandria
In the churchyard of Christ Church Alexandria, the gravestone of Isaac Pierce, a 24-year-old native of Boston who died on March 26, 1771, is the oldest legible gravestone in Alexandria.
| Here lies the Body of Mr. Isaac Pierce, Born in Boston, Son of Mr. Isaac Pierce, Distiller, Who Departed this Life March 26th 1771 Age 24 |
Sea Captain William Ramsay (October 4, 1716 – February 10, 1785) Pioneer and Pillar of Early Alexandria, Virginia
Sea Captain William Ramsay, one of Alexandria’s founders, was born in 1716 in Galloway, Kirkcudbrightshire, in the Scottish Lowlands (not Galway, Ireland, as is sometimes stated). He emigrated to the American colonies in 1744 and settled first in Dumfries, Virginia, before moving to Alexandria.
In 1748, with John Carlyle and John Pagan, he helped choose the site of Alexandria, and he was one of the town’s original trustees. A well-known merchant, he also owned and operated a mill in Northern Virginia.
Ramsay served as a justice of the Fairfax County Court, in both common law and chancery, from 1749 until his death, including the Revolutionary years from 1775 to 1783, when the justices also held legislative and executive powers.
He took part in many community projects. He was a manager of a lottery to fund a market house in Winchester, contracted with a crew to build a bridge over Broad Run for the county, served as a contractor for the county prison, and helped raise funds to repair the public pier and build a grammar school in Alexandria. He was Alexandria’s postmaster, possibly its first, from 1770 until 1775 or perhaps until his death, and he co-signed deeds for church property.
In 1761, he became the town’s first and only “Lord Mayor,” in an election not authorized by the General Assembly. He was a member of the St. Andrew’s Society, signed the Fairfax Resolves in 1774, and helped form the Fairfax Independent Company of Volunteers that year.
Ramsay was an enslaver who held a significant number of people in bondage, as his estate records show, and he took legal action to recover people who escaped.
When he died in 1785, his close friend George Washington walked in his funeral procession. He was buried in the churchyard of Christ Church Alexandria beside his wife, Ann Ball McCarty Ramsay (below), in an unmarked grave; a Scotch pine marks the spot. Ramsay Alley, which runs from Fairfax Street to Union Street, carries his name.
Ann Ball McCarty Ramsay (1730 – April 2, 1785): An American Patriot and Founding Mother
Ann Ball McCarty Ramsay was born in Lancaster County, Virginia, the daughter of Maj. Dennis McCarty and Sarah Ball, a first cousin of George Washington’s mother. On July 21, 1757, she married William Ramsay (above), and the couple had eight children.
During the American Revolution, Ann was elected treasurer of Alexandria’s fundraising effort for the Continental cause and raised more than seventy-five thousand in the paper money of the day, work for which she was praised by Thomas Jefferson.
She died on April 2, 1785, at 55, seven weeks after her husband, and George Washington walked in her funeral procession as well. She is buried beside William in an unmarked grave at Christ Church Alexandria, where a Scotch pine marks the spot.
Dr. William Ramsay, Jr. (c. 1755–1795) Revolutionary War Surgeon and Son of Alexandria’s Founding Family
Dr. William Ramsay Jr., the son of William and Ann Ramsay (above), studied at the College of New Jersey, later Princeton, with financial help from George Washington, who recognized his promise and visited him there as a student. During the Revolutionary War he served as a surgeon’s mate and surgeon, including aboard the George Washington, an Alexandria privateer that captured a British vessel in 1779. After the war he practiced medicine in Alexandria. He was a member of the Sun Fire Company, a signer of the 1792 petition seeking clemency for an enslaved man named Will, and a charter member of the Alexandria Library Company in 1794. He is generally said to be buried at Christ Church Alexandria; no burial record has been found there, though a burial permit was issued on May 1, 1795.
Anne Brunton Warren (March 30, 1769 – June 28, 1808) A Tragic Loss: Internationally Acclaimed Actress who died in Alexandria
Anne Brunton Merry, as audiences knew her, was a celebrated English actress, first in Britain and later in America. Born in 1769, one of the fourteen children of John Brunton, an actor and manager of the Theatre Royal, Norwich, she made her debut in 1785 at Bath and Covent Garden and won fame comparable to that of Sarah Siddons.
In 1791 she married the poet and playwright Robert Merry, known as “Della Crusca,” and left the stage, returning briefly to play benefits after his opera failed in 1792. In 1796 the couple moved to America, where she resumed her acting career and performed until 1808.
After Robert Merry died in 1798, she briefly returned to England. In 1803 she married Thomas Wignell, manager of the Philadelphia theater company, and after his death that year she helped manage the company. In 1806 she married William Warren. Celebrated in roles including Calista, Alicia, Isabella, and Monimia, she was the first eminent actress to cross the Atlantic.
Anne Warren died in Alexandria on June 28, 1808, at Gadsby’s Tavern, shortly after giving birth to a stillborn son, and was buried in the churchyard of Christ Church Alexandria.
| Beneath this stone are deposited the remains of Mrs. ANNE WARREN Daughter of JOHN BRUNTON, Esq., of England, and wife of WILLIAM WARREN, Esq., One of the Managers of the Philadelphia and Baltimore Theaters, By her loss The American stage has been deprived of one of its Brightest Ornaments. The unrivaled excellence of her theatrical talents was only surpassed by the many virtues and accomplishments which adorned her private life. In her were combined the affectionate wife the tender mother and the sincere friend She died at Alexandria, June 28, 1808 Aged 39 years. |
Sources of Information
DeRossi, L. (1985). Christ Church Yard Gravestones and Burial History (Alexandria Archaeology Publications, No. 30). Office of Historic Alexandria. Vestry minute of April 20, 1809, p. 179, transcribed from Christ Church Vestry Records, 1765–1842 (microfilm #00295 VR), Lloyd House Library, Alexandria.
Greenly, M. (1996). Those Upon Whom the Curtain Has Fallen: The Past and Present Cemeteries of Alexandria, VA. Alexandria Archaeology Publications.
Moore, G. M. (1949). Seaport in Virginia: George Washington’s Alexandria. Garrett and Massie, Incorporated.
Pippenger, W. E. (1992). Tombstone Inscriptions of Alexandria, Virginia, Volume 3. Family Line Publications.
Smith-Riedel, C. (2026). God and the Generals: The Story of Christ Church, Alexandria, Virginia. Christ Church Alexandria.
Unpublished Works
Dahmann, D. C. (2002). The Roster of Historic Congregational Members of the Old Presbyterian Meeting House.
Websites
Christ Church. (n.d.). Church history. Retrieved from Historic Christ Church.
Page last updated: October 2026
