New Tours, Exhibits and Events Bring 'Mercy Street' to Life

PHOTO: Carlyle House Historic Park in Old Town Alexandria; photo courtesy of Visit Alexandria

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More than two dozen new tours, exhibits and events tied into the new PBS series “Mercy Street” have been planned in Alexandria, kicking off in January, when the show debuts, Visit Alexandria has announced.

PBS’ first American drama in nearly a decade is inspired by true stories of Civil War Alexandria. Alexandria will celebrate the unprecedented national spotlight on its heritage by presenting new visitor experiences for fans of the series.

Premiering Sunday, Jan. 17, at 10 p.m., “Mercy Street” will follow the final season of “Downton Abbey” on Masterpiece. The six-episode series takes viewers beyond the battlefield and into the lives of Americans on the Civil War home front.

Set in 1862, the series follows the lives of two volunteer nurses on opposite sides of the conflict; Mary Phinney (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a staunch New England abolitionist, and Emma Green (Hannah James), a naive young Confederate belle. The two collide at Mansion House, the Green family’s luxury hotel that has been taken over and transformed into a Union Army Hospital in Alexandria.

Just outside of Washington, D.C., Alexandria was a border town between North and South and the longest Union-occupied city of the Civil War. Ruled under martial law, Alexandria was the melting pot of the region, filled with soldiers, civilians, female volunteers, doctors, wounded fighting men from both sides, speculators, spies, and African American refugees.

Today, visitors can get a close look at the story at Alexandria’s historic sites, with new visitor experiences launching in 2016. Visitor experiences uncover the real people behind the characters on the show, the realities of Civil War medicine, changing roles for women, and the breakthrough experience of enslaved African Americans claiming their freedom.

Highlights of new visitor experiences
• “Mercy Street”-inspired tours of Alexandria, featuring stories and sites that inspired the show
• “Explore the Real Mansion House” event, with an exclusive opportunity to step inside the former Mansion House hospital
• “Who These Wounded Are: The Extraordinary Stories of the Mansion House Hospital” exhibit at Carlyle House, once the Green family home, featuring a new interpretation of period hospital rooms and doctor/officer housing, plus stories of nurse Mary Phinney and spy Frank Stringfellow
• “Green Family Exhibit” at the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum, featuring purchases and stories of the Green family and Union Quartermaster staff
• “The Journey to be Free: Self-emancipation and Alexandria’s Contraband Heritage” exhibit at the Alexandria Black History Museum, telling the story of thousands of African Americans who escaped slavery and sought refuge behind Union lines in Alexandria
• “Have Mercy” hotel package at Monaco Alexandria, a Kimpton Hotel, including deluxe accommodation with modern Civil War-inspired décor at the historically significant location, two throwback Civil War-era handcrafted cocktails, two tickets to Carlyle House Historic Park, and 5 percent donation to the American Red Cross

Find Alexandria experiences inspired by PBS’ MERCY STREET at www.VisitAlexandriaVA.com/mercystreet

VISITOR EXPERIENCES

HOTEL PACKAGE:

“Have Mercy” Package at Monaco Alexandria, a Kimpton Hotel
Available Jan. 17 – July 1, 2016
480 King Street, Alexandria, VA 22314
703-549-6080
www.monaco-alexandria.com

Experience the true inspiration behind PBS’s new television drama “Mercy Street” in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia by booking the new “Have Mercy” package at Kimpton’s Hotel Monaco Alexandria. Stay in the heart of historic Old Town Alexandria at Hotel Monaco, located just three blocks from the former Mansion House Hotel and Carlyle House as depicted in the show, and enjoy “Mercy Street”-inspired amenities, such as:

• Deluxe guest room at the luxurious Hotel Monaco Alexandria with modern Civil War-inspired décor and rich Civil War history as the former location of the Marshall House where two of the first and most iconic deaths of the war occurred.
• Two throwback Civil War-era handcrafted cocktails at adjacent restaurant, Jackson 20.
• Two tickets to the Carlyle House Historic Park to learn more about the family and true stories behind the PBS’s “Mercy Street.” Carlyle House and the adjacent luxury Mansion House Hotel, owned by the Green family, acted as a hospital and staff quarters during the Civil War and inspired the show’s characters and stories.
• 5 percent of proceeds from the package will be donated to the American Red Cross to help military members, veterans and families with emergency communications, training, and support to wounded warriors and veterans.

Monaco Alexandria, a Kimpton Hotel’s “Have Mercy” package starts at $179 per night, not including tax. Package is available from Jan. 17 – July 1, 2016. To book the “Have Mercy” package, use rate code MERCY at www.monaco-alexandria.com or call 703-549-6080.

EXHIBITS:

Who These Wounded Are: The Extraordinary Stories of the Mansion House Hospital
Carlyle House Historic Park
Jan. 11 to July 11, 2016
121 N. Fairfax St., Alexandria, VA 22314
703-549-2997
www.carlylehouse.org

From 1861-1865, the U.S. Army used Carlyle House, then the home of Emma Green and her family, and the adjacent Mansion House Hotel as a hospital and staff quarters. The people who lived and worked at this site in Alexandria and their real life stories have inspired the PBS television show, “Mercy Street”. The owner of the house and hotel, James Green, was one of the richest men in town and made a deep historical footprint on Alexandria.

Carlyle House’s exhibit will feature the factual story of the history of the site and its occupants. Upstairs, a new interpretation will explore the lives of these individuals through period hospital rooms and doctor/officer housing.

Green Family Exhibit
Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum
January to May 2016
107 S. Fairfax St, Alexandria, VA 22314
703-746-3852

The Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary remained open and operational when Alexandria was occupied during the Civil War. The Green Family and Union Quartermaster staff shopped there to purchase everything from Laudanum to Cologne. Today, visitors can take a guided tour and experience the historic space where occupied Alexandria came to shop. The exhibit will feature the purchases and stories of the Green Family and the Union Quartermaster.

The Journey to be Free: Self-emancipation and Alexandria’s Contraband Heritage
Alexandria Black History Museum
Exhibit extended through March 2016
902 Wythe Street, Alexandria, VA 22314
703-746-4356
http://alexandriava.gov/BlackHistory

During the Civil War, thousands of African Americans escaping slavery sought refuge behind Union lines in Alexandria, Virginia. The fugitives found freedom in Alexandria, but also a city under siege. The influx overwhelmed the city. Rampant disease and deprivation took their toll on the freedmen. A cemetery was created for those who had survived slavery, but did not live long in freedom. “The Journey to be Free” shows the legacy of Alexandria’s Contraband community and the amazing story of their burial ground that was lost and rediscovered, now memorialized as the Contraband and Freedmen Cemetery.

Medical Care for the Civil War Soldier Exhibit
Fort Ward Museum
Ongoing exhibit
4301 West Braddock Road, Alexandria, VA 22304
703-746-4848
https://alexandriava.gov/FortWard

Fort Ward Museum has an ongoing exhibit which features original medical instruments and equipment from the Civil War period and information on Union Army hospital sites in Alexandria.

Nurse Clarissa Jones Exhibit
The Lyceum—Alexandria’s History Museum
Opening Jan. 25, 2016
201 S. Washington St., Alexandria, VA 22314
703-746-4994
www.alexandriava.gov/Lyceum

The Lyceum mounts an exhibit on the life of Clarissa Jones, a nurse at The Lyceum hospital during the Civil War. It will bring home to visitors the true story of an actual nurse in Alexandria during the war, drawing parallels with characters portrayed in the PBS drama “Mercy Street.” It will include references to the experiences of other Alexandria nurses at that time, such as Anne Reading, who actually worked in the Mansion House hospital, and Jane Woolsey, who served at the Fairfax Seminary hospital.

TOURS:

Medical Heroism in Alexandria: Walking Tour
Jan. 2-June 19, 2016. Sat-Sun: 4:30 p.m.
Tour starts at Visitors Center, 221 King Street, Alexandria, VA 22314
DC Military Tours
703-407-6663
www.dcmilitarytour.com

Experience an inside access tour of 19th century Alexandria. Inspired by the upcoming PBS mini-series “Mercy Street,” accompany a trained military historian through Civil War era Alexandria and learn the actual history behind the TV show. Get behind the scenes of locations “Mercy Street” characters lived, worked, and played.

Occupied City: Civil War Alexandria Self-Guided Tour
Available starting Jan. 16, 2016
The Lyceum-Alexandria’s History Museum
201 S. Washington St., Alexandria, VA 22314
703-746-4994
www.alexandriava.gov/Lyceum

Fans of PBS’ “Mercy Street” drama series will learn about the real history behind the show on this self-guided walking tour, which features significant Civil War Alexandria sites all within walking distance of The Lyceum, which was seized and used as a hospital during the war.

Beyond the Battlefield Walking Tour
Tour Dates: Feb. 13, May 14, July 9, Sept. 10, Nov. 12
10 a.m.
Tour starts at The Lyceum: 201 South Washington St., Alexandria, VA 22314
703-548-1789
contact@leefendallhouse.org
www.leefendallhouse.org

Discover the real-life stories and locations of soldiers, citizens, and former slaves that inspired the PBS drama “Mercy Street” in this walking tour of Old Town. Discover the challenges, triumphs, and controversies of life behind the front lines in an occupied city during the Civil War. See the locations of hospitals, hotels, prisons, and more that filled Alexandria during four years of conflict. Tour length is 3 hours and the route is approximately 1.75 miles. Admission $15. Tour starts at The Lyceum, 201 South Washington Street. Parking is not available at The Lyceum’s lot for this program.

Walking Behind the Scenes at Mansion House Hospital
TBD Spring 2016. Check website after Jan.1 for dates.
Footsteps to the Past and Carlyle House
703-683-3451
www.footstepstothepast.com

This guided citywide tour highlights the history behind Mercy Street, with stops at important Alexandria Civil War sites including Carlyle House and the grounds of the former Mansion House Hospital. Visitors will have exclusive after-hours access through this tour to explore the vaults and the exhibit featuring period artifacts and the stories of soldiers, nurses, doctors and the prestigious Green family who owned the house and hotel during the Civil War.

Medical Heroism in Alexandria: Tour by Land and Water
April 2 – June 19, 2016. Sat-Sun: 4 p.m.
June 21 – Sept. 4, 2016. Sat-Sun: 4 p.m. Tue-Fri: 2 p.m.
September 10 – Oct. 9, 2016. Sat-Sun: 4 p.m.
DC Military Tours
703-407-6663
www.dcmilitarytour.com

Explore the “Mercy Street” story by land and by water on this guided tour of Civil War Alexandria. Accompany a trained military historian from DC Military Tours by boat through Alexandria’s 19th-century seaport and then by land for an inside access look at period sites depicted on “Mercy Street,” including a Civil War hospital and other parts of the city’s Civil War landscape.

Ivy Hill Cemetery Self-Guided Tour
Starting October 1, 2015
2823 Kings Cloister Circle, Alexandria, VA 22302
703-549-7413
www.ivyhillcemetery.net

Ivy Hill Cemetery presents a self-guided tour on the Green family and Frank Stringfellow, who are featured in the PBS drama “Mercy Street”. Chartered in 1856, Ivy Hill Cemetery is the final resting place of the Green family and Frank Stringfellow. Guided tours will be available upon request. Maps for self-guided tours are available at the Ivy Hill Cemetery office from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Also available for download from Ivy Hill Cemetery’s website.

EVENTS AND ONE-TIME TOURS:

Performance: Staged Reading of a New Play, Virginia Luxuries by Pamela Leahigh
The Athenaeum
Jan. 28, 2016
201 Prince St., Alexandria, VA 22314
703-548-0035
$15 admission
www.nvfaa.org

One old home in Alexandria houses both the past and the present. Two families, one modern, one living during the Civil War, find that their stories are intertwined. Can the modern family escape the weight of the slavery and the Confederacy?

Explore the Real Mansion House
121 N. Fairfax Street, Alexandria, VA 22314
January 30, 2016, Saturday, at 10 a.m.
$10 Alexandria Historical Society and Friends of Carlyle House Members; $20 all others
For tickets: https://alexandriahistoricalsociety.wildapricot.org/event-2044704

Go behind the scenes and learn about the true story of the nurses, doctors, soldiers and Alexandrians who star in PBS’s new series “Mercy Street.” The program will begin in one of the original lobbies of the famous hospital, normally closed to the public, with coffee, bagels and a presentation led by Sarah Coster, curator of the exhibit “Nurses, Soldiers, Spies: The Mansion House Hospital,” and Audrey Davis, historical consultant for “Mercy Street” and Director of the Alexandria Black History Museum. Then, go on a tour of the Carlyle House, the Green family’s stately Southern mansion, whose history goes back to the 1740s.

We Are Not Butchers: Military Surgeons of the Civil War
Co-sponsored by The Lyceum and Fort Ward Museum
Feb. 3, 7:30 p.m. at The Lyceum
201 S. Washington St., Alexandria, VA 22314
703-746-4994
www.alexandriava.gov/Lyceum
Snow date: February 24
$5 admission

A lecture on medical care during the Civil War period presented by Von Barron, Civil War medical historian and interpreter. Mr. Barron will cover general medical knowledge and practices of the period, and military hospital facilities of the time, both in the field and urban centers like Alexandria. Tickets for the lecture can be purchased by calling The Lyceum at 703-746-4994, or online at shop.alexandriava.gov.

Harriet Jacobs and Julia Wilbur: Friends and Allies in Civil War Alexandria
Presented by Paula Whitacre
Feb. 6, 2016, at 11 a.m.
902 Wythe St, Alexandria, VA 22314
703-746-4356
Co-sponsored by Alexandria Archaeology and the Alexandria Black History Museum
Free

Writer, editor, and Civil War researcher Paula Whitacre will deliver a lecture on Harriet Ann Jacobs and Julia Wilbur, two women who lived in Alexandria during the Civil War and wrote about their experiences. Harriet Ann Jacobs was an African-American writer who escaped from slavery and was later freed. She became an abolitionist speaker and reformer. She wrote an autobiographical novel, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” Julia Wilbur, a relief worker from Rochester, NY, came to Alexandria during the Civil War. She kept a detailed diary from the 1840s through her death in 1895, some of which Paula Whitacre transcribed and annotated.

Women of Alexandria, from Antebellum to the 20th Century
The Athenaeum
Part 1: Feb. 8, Part 2: Feb. 22, Part 3: March 7
201 Prince St, Alexandria, VA 22314
703-548-0035
Free
www.nvfaa.org

Lecture presented by the Athenaeum. Alexandria spent four years as an occupied city. During that time, daily life became quite different for residents who remained in the city, and in many cases, the war changed the course of women’s lives. Women of Alexandria, from Antebellum to the 20th Century will illuminate an important side of the city’s history that we feel has been under-investigated: the effect of the Civil War on the lives of Alexandria’s women.

From Slavery to Freedom Tour
Lee-Fendall House
Feb. 20, 2016
1 p.m.
614 Oronoco St, Alexandria, VA 22314
703-548-1789
$8 admission
www.leefendallhouse.org

This special tour interprets the Lee-Fendall House from the perspective of its enslaved inhabitants, exploring the unique experiences of slavery in the city. Hear the true stories of “contrabands,” as seen in the PBS drama “Mercy Street.” Special behind-the-scenes access is granted to areas not normally open to the public. Admission $8.

Performance: Alexandria’s Civil War: Diaries and Letters of Alexandrian Women
The Athenaeum
March 10, 2016
201 Prince St, Alexandria, VA 22314
703-548-0035
$15 admission
www.nvfaa.org

Local actors will read from diaries and letters of women who lived in Alexandria during the Civil War. A dessert reception will follow the reading.

Spies & Scones – A Special “History Mystery” Tea
Lee-Fendall House
May 21, 2016
614 Oronoco St, Alexandria, VA 22314
703-548-1789
$50 admission
www.leefendallhouse.org

Alexandria was filled with spies and during the Civil War. Enjoy a Victorian tea, learn about real life secret agents like Frank Stringfellow (portrayed in the PBS drama “Mercy Street”), then put your own powers of detection to the test to discover the spy in the room! Admission $50.

Surgeons & Citizens, Spirits & Soldiers
Lee-Fendall House
Oc. 8, 2016
614 Oronoco St, Alexandria, VA 22314
703-548-1789
$10 admission
www.leefendallhouse.org

Explore how Americans dealt with the tragedy of the Civil War in this living history program. Visit a soldier facing his own death in a hospital. See a casket displayed in proper Victorian style, surrounded by the grieving family and friends of a lost loved one. Listen as a spiritualist tries to sell her services to those in need of hope and closure. Admission $10.

Civil War Surgeon and Field Hospital Program
Fort Ward Museum and Historic Site
April 23, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Rain date: April 30
4301 West Braddock Road, Alexandria, VA 22304
703-746-4848
https://alexandriava.gov/FortWard
Free

Fort Ward Museum & Historic Site will sponsor a Civil War medical living history program presented by Civil War medical historian and interpreter Von Barron, who portrays U.S. Army Regimental Surgeon Captain Turner Kitt in a field hospital setting that features a variety of medical tools and equipment of the era.

Ivy Hill Cemetery Tour
Oct. 30, 2016
Co-sponsored by Alexandria Colonial Tours and Ivy Hill Cemetery
2823 Kings Cloister Circle, Alexandria, VA 22302
703-519-1749
http://alexcolonialtours.com/

The Ghost and Graveyard Tour together with Ivy Hill Cemetery bring you a tour of Ivy Hill inspired by the PBS drama “Mercy Street”. For one night only, visitors can see the graves of Emma Green, Frank Stringfellow and other Alexandrians who figure prominently in the PBS mini-series “Mercy Street.” This one-hour tour will take visitors on a night-time stroll through the graveyard, led by lantern light, as they visit the final resting places of these historic and influential people. Tours are given every 30 minutes from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m.,Oct. 30, 2016. Reservations suggested.