The historic building located at 515 North Washington Street in Alexandria, Virginia, United States, has been used as a cotton mill, prison, factory, office space, and apartments. It was built by the Mount Vernon Manufacturing Company in 1848 in present-day Old Town Alexandria. After the original owners were unsuccessful with their cotton mill business venture, the building was sold in 1855. After a renovation, the new owner was able to operate a successful business, but his success was cut short after the Civil War began. The building was one of many local businesses that the Union Army seized after it entered Alexandria. After briefly serving as a hospital and warehouse, the mill was repurposed and renamed the Washington Street Military Prison, the largest of the five Civil War prisons in the city. Rufus Dudley Pettit was named warden in 1864 and he was responsible for widespread abuse and sadistic behavior towards prisoners.
After the war the building briefly reverted to operating as a cotton mill, but after that business venture failed, it was sold and sat empty until 1902 when Robert Portner and his Portner Brewing Company purchased the property. The building operated as a bottling plant until Virginia passed Prohibition legislation, resulting in the plant's closure. It was purchased by the Express Spark Plug Company which made spark plugs there until it went out of business in 1928. The building was converted into the Belle Haven Apartment House in the 1930s and it remained in residential use until 1981, when it was renovated and became office space. The building was the headquarters for the International Association of Chiefs of Police from 1992 until 2014, when the property once again underwent a renovation. Since the building is a contributing property to the Alexandria Historic District, the project underwent a review by historic preservation organizations. The property was converted into The Mill, a 25-unit apartment building featuring original architectural details and an adjoining park.
An interesting feature of the building is that a mannequin nicknamed Oscar is perched in the cupola. There are a few rumors as to Oscar's origin, but the most likely story is that it was brought into the building sometime around 1920. The other rumors are that it was placed there by local police after an employee was brutally murdered on the property in 1854 or that prison guards would use it as a stand-in when they would go on breaks. Oscar is treated as an historical part of the building and during the most recent renovation, it was carefully preserved.
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former terminus north of Railroad Pass in 1994, when signs of the designation finally were put up. I-515 was built to bypass Fremont Street and Boulder Highway...
in Virginia in 1916 and bottling plants including the one at 515NorthWashingtonStreet were shuttered. Portner's sons tried to keep the co mpany alive...
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(600 ha) in the Valley and owned 2,315 acres (937 ha). In 1751, Washington left mainland North America for the first and only time, when he accompanied Lawrence...
of the larger district. 515NorthWashingtonStreet (1848) Burke & Herbert Bank at 621 King Street (1906) 117 S. Washington St. (c.1930s) The Alexandria...
Parts of F Street and 7th Street, N.W. and nearby blocks have historically been the heart of the Washington, D.C. Downtown shopping district. In the first...
2015-07-23 at the Wayback Machine at the Washington Dept. of Ecology website Number represents usable storage (between 515 and 543 ft elevation); dead storage...
chicozapote, chicoo, chicle, naseberry, nispero, or soapapple, among other names,: 515 is an evergreen tree native to southern Mexico and Central America. An example...
corner of E and 23rd Streets in Foggy Bottom (north of the Lincoln Memorial). Washington Mean Time was sometimes called Washington Meridian Time. It was...
from the I-515 / SR 564 terminus to Charleston Boulevard, was now completed to freeway standards. Construction of the North 5th Street interchange was...
2024, officials will begin replacing I-515 signs in Las Vegas with I-11 signs and adding I-11 signs on US 95 north of Downtown Las Vegas, which will extend...
The Washington Monument is an obelisk on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George Washington, a Founding Father of the United...
Publications. ISBN 978-0-515-04194-1. Blottner, Gene (2015). Columbia Noir: A Complete Filmography, 1940-1962. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland....
The Washington meridians are four meridians that were used as prime meridians in the United States which pass through Washington, D.C. The four that have...
(PDF). Washington State Department of Transportation. pp. 505–515. Retrieved April 4, 2013. "47.17.075: State route No. 18". Revised Code of Washington. Washington...
two digits are derived from the main Interstate Highway. For instance, I-515 contains an odd number in the first digit (5), which indicates that this...
Beaver Street". New-York Tribune. July 1, 1919. p. 21. Retrieved August 17, 2020 – via newspapers.com . Architects' and Builders' Magazine 1904, p. 515. "Appointed...
easement over WashingtonStreet. It also called for the construction of roundabouts at both the north and south ends of WashingtonStreet as transition...
southern terminus of SR 515 at Kent-Meridian High School before leaving Kent for Covington. SR 516 passes Lake Meridian as 272nd Street and intersects SR 18...
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