“Rebellious Scoundrels”: The Patriots of Alexandria’s Presbyterian Meeting House
In 1774, a hostile English visitor dismissed the Presbyterians of Alexandria in his journal. This free Old Presbyterian Meeting House walking tour guide takes you through the sanctuary and churchyard where more than forty of those “scoundrels” now rest.
One Small Yard, the Whole Revolution
Alexandria was founded in 1749 as an Anglican town — its taxes owed by law to the established Church of England. The Presbyterians who organized here in 1772 were dissenters: legally tolerated, taxed for someone else’s church, and required to keep their doors open at all times so their meetings could never be secret. In 1775 they raised a Meeting House anyway — in the opening year of the Revolution.
The tour moves from the sanctuary — where a colonial clock rests at the moment Washington died — into one of the great patriot burial grounds of Virginia: his physician, a Boston Tea Party participant, a Fairfax Resolves signer, and an Unknown Soldier of the Revolution.
Inside the Guide
The guide unfolds in three parts — a seated half hour in the sanctuary, then out among the founders:
More than forty Revolutionary patriots are buried in this one small churchyard. Washington worshipped within the first Meeting House twice — and in 1799, the town’s only bell tolled his death from its walls.
Plan Your Visit
Meet
Old Presbyterian Meeting House
321 South Fairfax Street
Old Town Alexandria
Duration
About 90 minutes
Level walking, short distances
Terrain
Brick walkways and uneven churchyard ground — sturdy shoes advised
Street parking in Old Town
One Email a Month
Hear About New Dates First
Meeting House tour dates are set around the life of the congregation. Join the monthly email to hear about them first, along with new stories from Alexandria’s historic burial grounds — and get a free copy of A Guide to Alexandria’s Historic Cemeteries & Burial Grounds.
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Meet the “Scoundrels”
From Washington’s own physician to a man who threw tea into Boston Harbor — 250 years of history in one small yard, told by the historian who documented it.
A walking tour presented by Gravestone Stories in partnership with the Old Presbyterian Meeting House.