Look for the painted red and white Maltese cross insignia marking the station, featuring a unique central seal with a ship and scales, flanked by a ladder and a fire hydrant.
History is rarely just a record of facts; often, historical myths are deliberately crafted by later generations to justify their power or drum up prestige. And in this town, George Washington is the ultimate figure of that myth-making machine. While Black Alexandrians had to forge literal spaces of sanctuary and truth just to survive brutal realities, the city's establishment had the luxury of simply inventing their own heroic legends.
Take the Friendship Fire Company, the predecessor to the modern Alexandria Fire Department. It was founded in 1774, and the story goes that George Washington himself was out there on the fire lines, hauling hoses and battling blazes. It sounds incredible. It is also completely made up. In the mid-1800s, a guy named Charles McKnight started this rumor just to boost membership for his fire company's veterans' society. The reality? Washington did buy a fire engine for the town in 1775, but there is zero proof he ever fought a fire. Yet the myth stuck so hard that by 1954, the old firehouse was formally dedicated as a shrine to him.
Check out the second image on your app to see a 1910 shot of that historic company, which clung to this fabricated past for decades. In fact, that myth caused a massive headache in the 1980s. The city decided to phase out volunteer firefighters by requiring a rigorous sixteen-week training course. This effectively fired the volunteers because they had full-time day jobs. They were furious. Their historian, Donald White, actually threatened to fight fire with water, boldly claiming he would call the state police to arrest career firefighters who tried to stop them. White invoked the founding firefighter myth, telling the press that if Washington saw how volunteers were being treated, he would just cuss them out.
But you do not need ghost stories to find heroism here. The modern career department has seen incredible real-world action. On September 11th, Alexandria units self-dispatched to the Pentagon, setting up primary medical triage right outside the smoldering gap in the building. And during the 2017 Congressional baseball shooting in a nearby neighborhood, paramedic Chad Shade saved a life using military-grade HyFin occlusive chest seals. These are specialized airtight dressings rarely used outside combat zones, which he used to seal a fist-sized sucking chest wound... a fatal injury where air gets trapped in the chest cavity... saving the victim.
Fast forward to 2021, and this department made real history. Under Chief Corey Smedley, they became the first local department in Virginia to authorize public unions to collectively bargain. This is a process where workers legally negotiate their own pay and safety conditions, reversing a statewide ban that had been in place since 1977.
As you keep exploring, I want you to really question the monuments and the polished stories you encounter out here. Always ask yourself who wrote them, and who they were meant to serve. Since the firehouse is open 24 hours a day, it stands as a constant watchpost over a town still wrestling with its truths. When you are ready, let's take a quick two-minute walk over to Appomattox.
