In its October 1785 session, the General Assembly passed “An act for regulating the streets in and adjoining to the town of Alexandria.” It did not enlarge the town, which still ran from Oronoco Street south to Franklin and west to Washington Street. Instead it drew a district reaching to Great Hunting Creek, Four Mile Run, and a line a mile west of the courthouse, and required that any proprietor laying out lots there follow the town’s plan: streets 66 feet wide, blocks of exactly two acres, and Washington Street widened to 100 feet along its whole length. Only the Episcopal church and its burying ground were exempted from the widening. The rule bound the private subdivisions of the next decade and gave Old Town the regular blocks and broad central avenue it still has. (Hening, Statutes at Large, 12:205–207)