OPMH Patriots Walking Tour

Join the Alexandria Historical Society on our latest walking tour: Alexandria’s Patriots Remembered: A Revolutionary Walk Through the Old Presbyterian Meeting House, on Saturday, July 18, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. starting at the Old Presbyterian Meeting House, 323 South Fairfax Street, Old Town Alexandria.

Presented as part of the Alexandria Historical Society’s History Behind the Scenes series and Alexandria’s 250th Celebration, this tour will explore one of the city’s most significant founding-era landmarks: the Old Presbyterian Meeting House (OPMH) and its 18th-century burial ground to learn about the men and women whose lives connected the congregation directly to the American Revolution and the early republic.

Founded in the colonial era, the OPMH has stood at the center of Alexandria’s religious, civic, and commemorative life for generations. The original Meeting House was erected in 1775, largely destroyed by fire in 1835, and rebuilt on the same historic site. Its burial ground preserves the memory of many early Alexandrians, including Revolutionary War veterans and other patriots whose stories remain closely tied to the city’s founding-era history.

The tour will be led by David Heiby, superintendent of Alexandria’s Presbyterian Cemetery, an Alexandria Historical Society Board Member, owner and founder of Gravestone Stories, and a member of the OPMH since 1963. Through Gravestone Stories, Heiby leads historian-guided cemetery tours and maintains a growing research archive documenting Alexandria’s historic cemeteries and the lives of those buried within them.

Heiby will share the stories of 43 Revolutionary War veterans and patriots associated with the Meeting House, including physicians, merchants, civic leaders, soldiers, and others whose lives illuminate Alexandria’s role in the nation’s founding era.

Participants will walk through the historic burial ground, learn about the people memorialized there, and consider how the Meeting House served as a center of worship, civic life, and memory in early Alexandria. The program will also include a tour of the historic 1837 sanctuary, which continues to stand as one of the city’s most important historic religious spaces.