Plan To Save Freedom House Under Consideration In Alexandria

ALEXANDRIA, VA—The Alexandria City Council will consider a plan to provide assistance to Freedom House, the financially-struggling museum that housed the largest 19th century slave trading operation in the U.S. The Northern Virginia Urban League, which operates and finances the museum at 1315 Duke Street, has been struggling to make the mortgage payments in light of diminishing grant options. The museum could be closed if the League cannot afford to pay for it.

City Manager Mark Jinks is presenting a short-term takeover of the museum to City Council Tuesday, Feb. 13. Under the plan, the city would provide a loan up to $63,000 for nine months to pay a monthly $6,000 mortgage and up to $1,000 per month in utility expenses. A related proposal would allow the city to apply for a $125,000 grant from the National Trust For Historic Preservation's African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund.

The loans from the city would give the League time to fundraise for the loan repayment, stabilize its finances and work on a long-term plan. The proposal would also hand over operations to the city, allowing for expanded educational exhibits, staffing and hours.

The museum is open for special hours Saturdays from 1 p.m.-5 p.m. in February to commemorate Black History Month. Tickets are $5 per person. Expanded hours are proposed from March to September, including regular museum hours Thursday through Sunday as well as special events and walking tours.

Around a million enslaved African-American women, men and children passed through Freedom House between 1828 and 1861. The building is one of the last remnants of the slave trading business in the U.S. and had ties to Solomon Northup, author of "Twelve Years a Slave," which became an Oscar-winning film. Slave trading ended when Union troops occupied Alexandria in mid-1861.

The Northern Virginia Urban League acquired Freedom House in 1996, dedicating it to Rev. Henry Louis Bailey, a former slave that returned to Alexandria and founded several churches and schools in Virginia.

This isn't the first time the city would provide assistance to a struggling museum. The city took over the Stabler Leadbeater Apothecary Museum from a nonprofit struggling to keep the museum open. The Lee-Fendall House had been granted $50,000 to address physical structural issues, and the city recently purchased the Reeder House with open space and historical preservation grant funds.

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Image via Visit Alexandria