Guy Atkinson and Dr. William Ramsay.  113 and 115 North Fairfax Street.  These buildings were constructed around 1796-97 by Guy Atkinson (1758-1835), an artist, portrait painter, grocer, and wine merchant who participated with Washington in laying the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol building and walked in Washington’s funeral procession.  He rented studios to other artists, including Charles Fevret de Saint-Memin.  Saint-Memin did a crayon portrait of George Washington from life in 1798 (believed to be the last drawing of Washington made from life), and he also did portraits of three of Martha Washington’s grandchildren.

This was probably the site of a frame house owned by Dr. William Ramsay (d. 1795), the son of William Ramsay (1716-1785), one of Alexandria’s founding Trustees.  George Washington paid 25 pounds per year for Dr. William Ramsay’s studies at Jersey College (now Princeton University).  When he proposed this arrangement to Ramsay’s father, Washington wrote about the son “who I am told is a youth fond of study and instruction, and disposed to a sedentary studious life.”  Washington even visited young Ramsay at college and gave him pocket money in 1773.  Dr. William Ramsay served as a naval surgeon in the Revolution, making at least one voyage on the George Washington, a privateer out of Alexandria.  He then returned to Alexandria to practice medicine, dying in 1795.  George Washington enjoyed foxhunting with Dr. William Ramsay.

            If you step inside cobblestoned Ramsay Alley, you can see several other aspects of George Washington’s Alexandria.  Although currently residences, the two small brick structures behind 113 and 115 North Fairfax Street were once separate kitchen buildings.  This property was part of the two lots purchased by William Ramsay (1716-1785) at the first auction of town lots in 1749.  It is believed he had this alley built for easy access to his wharf.

            The flounder building at 207 Ramsay Alley reputedly was William Ramsay’s warehouse, and was later owned by Colonel Charles Simms (1755-1819) who sold it in 1799.  Simms was a lieutenant colonel in the Revolutionary War, Washington’s lawyer for land leases, a participant with Washington in laying the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol building, one of the four Masons who planned Washington’s funeral, a pall bearer at Washington’s funeral, and counsel to the executors of George’s and Martha’s estates.  Also, Simms was a delegate in the Virginia legislature 1785-86, 1792, and 1796; a vestryman of Christ Church; president of the Potomac Company 1807-1814; president of the Little River Turnpike Company 1809-1814; collector of the port 1799-1819; and a trustee of the Alexandria Academy. 

            Late in the Revolutionary War, Colonel Simms requested leave to survey his lands before a Virginia legislative deadline.  When leave was denied by General Washington himself, Simms sought and obtained leave directly from the Continental Congress and the Virginia legislature.  While a delegate to the Virginia convention to ratify the United States Constitution, Simms served on the committee on amendments with James Madison, George Mason, George Wythe, Patrick Henry, John Marshall, and James Monroe.  Mayor of Alexandria during the War of 1812, Simms surrendered the city to the British in 1814. 

(Adapted from Robert Madison’s Walking with Washington, available in Alexandria museum gift shops.)