Talk:Alexandria, Virginia

schools

As a resident of Alexandria i noticed that the school listed are out of date as their are two more schools and one that goes from kindergarten to 8th grade this school is Jefferson Houston (JH for short). the second school you missed is Francis c Hammond it is a elementary school also be ready for the future as TC Williams (TC for short) is being renamed. thank you and please fix this — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chippypeddays (talk • contribs) 17:06, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

Hi Chippypeddays, I believe I have updated Alexandria, Virginia § Education to be more current and include a note about the future renaming. You're always welcome to edit the page itself if you want or ask for help with potential edits. Skynxnex (talk) 21:39, 29 December 2020 (UTC)

Self-explanatory sentence tagged with how

Prohibition closed a brewery in 1916. How? Take a wild guess. When discussing the word "Prohibition" in any article involving the United States, it always refers to the prohibition of alcohol, which is common knowledge. -- Miwa * talk * contribs ^_^ 23:21, 10 March 2021 (UTC)

I'm willing to bet that by now there are young people in the United States who don't know even highlights of the country's history from a century ago. In addition, this is not American Wikipedia. I would imagine there were events and terms of comparable importance to Danes, Indonesians, and Ethiopians that took place during the first third of the twentieth century that you know nothing about. Largoplazo (talk) 02:34, 11 March 2021 (UTC)

Update for Brooks - two notable Alexandrians

A noted Wikipedia man now has a notable spouse and they should be linked by one of

> >- JUST HAPPENED > > See Gen. Leo A. Brooks Sr. - Wikipedia his wife Naomi L. Brooks just had a elem school named after her > > - > > see School Board Approves New Names For T.C. Williams, Maury Schools | Old Town > > Alexandria, VA Patch

https://patch.com/virginia/delray/s/hifda/school-board-approves-new-names-for-t-c-williams-maury-schools?utm_source=nearby-news&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert

108.51.211.133 (talk) 18:26, 10 April 2021 (UTC)

Geography Map is mislabeled

The Map in the Geography Section with the caption "Adjacent jurisdictions on a map of the greater Alexandria region" is mislabeled. The area marked "Alexandria" is not Alexandria, but actually part of Fairfax County. Alexandria is located farther north, north of I-495, not south of it. Likewise, "Falls Church" and "Arlington" are in the wrong places. Both locations are much farther north, so far north that both locations aren't on the map. 216.24.45.35 (talk) 04:51, 2 August 2022 (UTC)

Thank you, you're absolutely right. "Arlington" was positioned at the south edge of the city of Alexandria, and "Falls Church" was way too far south. I've removed the map. If someone else wants to come along and restore it after fixing the label locations in the template, that will be fine. I don't have the time to tinker with that. Largoplazo (talk) 09:49, 2 August 2022 (UTC)

New rec centers?

Recently, the City of Alexandria got a new rec center at Minnie Howard (https://www.alexandriava.gov/aquatics/minnie-howard-aquatics-facility), so it would seem to be appropriate to update the total number of rec centers to be 11, and include a short blurb about the new pool.

(I work for the City of Alexandria, as a heads up. Not being compensated for this in any way, just came across the Wikipedia page while browsing and noticed that it was inaccurate)

StellarOctoberSkies (talk) 23:28, 5 May 2025 (UTC)

Proposed changes to "Parks and Recreation" tab

−

Alexandria has over 900 acres (3.6 km2) of protected open space with 566 acres of city-owned park land and 10 recreation centers, of which Chinquapin is one of the largest. Chinquapin offers facilities for swimming, tennis, racquetball, and other sports. The city also organizes several sports leagues throughout the year including volleyball, softball and basketball.

+

Alexandria has over 900 acres (3.6 km2) of protected open space with 566 acres of city-owned park land and 11 recreation centers, of which Chinquapin is one of the largest. Chinquapin offers facilities for swimming, tennis, racquetball, and other sports. Additionally, on March 19th, 2024 a year round recreation center opened inside of the Minnie Howard campus of [[Alexandria City High School]], with a competition size swimming pool and a therapeutic training pool. The city also organizes several sports leagues throughout the year including volleyball, softball and basketball.

• Reason for the change: A new recreation center was opened in 2024 with the extensive renovation of Minnie Howard high school. It is larger than Chinquapin, and is the second public indoor pool in the City of Alexandria. The change from 10 --> 11 recreation centers is factual, and the addition of information regarding the pool at Minnie Howard appears relevant given it's size.
• References supporting change: This press release from the City itself. Although a primary source, I feel it is at least somewhat relevant as it is cited by every other secondary source. This short news article also supports this change. There is also this article regarding the renovations as a whole. There is not a good source that is not just regurgitating what the City press release said, but given anyone walking into the Minnie Howard pool can see that there is a competition size pool, and a therapeutic training pool, I think that is acceptable.
• Conflict: I am employed by the City of Alexandria, but I am not receiving compensation for anything relating to Wikipedia, I simply noticed an inaccuracy that needed updating.

StellarOctoberSkies (talk) 12:37, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

Done Encoded  Talk 💬 21:39, 27 May 2025 (UTC)

Proposed image montage for lead

Hello! For a while now, I've been thinking about replacing the single image of the Masonic Memorial in the lead section with an image montage. While the Memorial is obviously an important Alexandria landmark (perhaps the most important), I feel like Alexandria is sufficiently large, significant, and diverse to warrant a wider selection of images in line with other noteworthy cities. I know that I could've been bold and just added the montage without saying anything here, but since it's a major part of the page's identity, I felt like it was good to at least see if anyone else had feedback. I have been tinkering with my selection of images for a little while, and I think I've found a few that might be good selections. In line with the conventional inclusion of the city's skyline as the top image, I feel like this image is a great shot of Old Town's core with the Potomac in the background, and it's already used on many non-English Wikipedia articles about Alexandria. For the second line, I included this image of city hall and this image of Union Station. City hall made sense to include as the city's seat of government and metaphorical center on Market Square, and Union Station is both a key transit hub in its own right and more "specific" to Alexandria than, say, King St-Old Town station on the Metro (though that wouldn't necessarily be a bad inclusion either). For the third and final line, I chose this image of King Street and this image of the Masonic Memorial. Since King Street is the city's main commercial street, it seemed important to include, and I also felt like a street-level view of rowhomes/storefronts in Old Town would be beneficial as well (I know this specific image is used later in the article, but that one could just be replaced). I was torn about the Memorial image; the existing one in the article, while a very good image in isolation, was so narrow that each individual word of "George Washington Masonic National Memorial" took up its own line, creating excessive white space underneath King Street. I'm certainly open to suggestions if anyone thinks a different image would be better. Silver181 (talk) 21:53, 26 March 2026 (UTC)

@Silver181: Could you do a sample of the montage here? Thanks. Magnolia677 (talk) 22:46, 26 March 2026 (UTC)

Of course! And my apologies, I meant to say "collage" (I believe?); I get those terms mixed up quite a bit. To avoid cluttering up the talk page with a bunch of plain text, I posted a sample on my sandbox. Silver181 (talk) 23:51, 26 March 2026 (UTC)

@Silver181: Looks nice. No duplicates. Good work. Magnolia677 (talk) 14:58, 27 March 2026 (UTC)

I definitely support replacing the single Masonic Temple image and have pondered spending time figuring a good replacement. So thanks for putting in the time.

The collage looks nice I know some editors prefer smaller number of images at the top of the infobox but looking at other cities, I think this is probably the right number for Alexandria. I'd maybe suggest finding an image to swapping in a different image for City Hall given the major renovations that have just begun. Skynxnex (talk) 15:26, 27 March 2026 (UTC)

Adding on, I think if we could find a nice picture from west of Quaker Lane would be nice; Alexandria is a lot more than just Old Town, after all. Maybe something from c:Category:Fort Ward (Virginia)? File:Virginia Theological Seminary Alexandria, VA.JPG seems like a decent and a fairly notable thing in the city. Too bad we don't have any good pictures of Winkler Botanical Preserve in Commons. And open to other ideas. Skynxnex (talk) 15:34, 27 March 2026 (UTC)

Was there a city hall picture that you had in mind? I've tried searching the existing options on Wikimedia and don't see one that is more representative of the structure in its latest form, unless you were suggesting just holding off on including city hall for now due to the remodel. I agree that the Theological Seminary is a rational choice for something more west. Is there a current slot you think it should replace? Silver181 (talk) 15:54, 27 March 2026 (UTC)

I think given the city hall is current surrounded by fencing, we hold off having a picture of it and maybe swap in the Seminary picture for that? Skynxnex (talk) 16:11, 27 March 2026 (UTC)

Okay, I got rid of the city hall picture and moved the King Street one to its location. I put the Seminary on the bottom row since the double-line text would take up more of the white space when next to the Memorial. I submitted the edit for now with these recommended changes, but more tweaks can always be done, of course. At the very least, it seems like some form of collage was agreed upon here. Silver181 (talk) 16:45, 27 March 2026 (UTC)