In 1784, Alexandria’s Quaker community established a burial ground on Queen Street, replacing an earlier site on South St. Asaph Street. By the early 1800s, the Queen Street ground was nearing capacity. In July 1803, Alexandria’s Friends began actively seeking a new burial ground within the city, but by the following July, the project was abandoned after the Common Council imposed restrictions on further burials within town limits.
By 1809, those restrictions had expanded into a citywide health ordinance that formally prohibited new burials within Alexandria’s boundaries. As a result, the Quaker community began interring its dead at the Friends Cemetery in Washington, D.C., although discreet burials at the Queen Street site continued for a time.
Of the 159 individuals once buried at the Queen Street ground, 66 were reinterred on-site in 1937 during construction of the Kate Waller Barrett Branch Library, while 93 remain in their original plots. Only 78 burials are documented today. Among the notable Friends interred there are Dr. Elisha Cullen Dick, William Hartshorne, and William Stabler—each of whom made lasting contributions to Alexandria and early American history.