ALEXANDRIA, Va. — On June 4, 1870, the Friendship Firehouse on South Alfred Street was reported to be in structurally unsound condition, forcing the removal of all fire equipment from the building. It had been constructed just 15 years earlier.
The cause was the firehouse’s most distinctive feature: a massive steeple atop the building that was repeatedly battered by high winds. The wind torqued the small structure below it, allowing rainwater to penetrate the roof and framing. Years of deferred maintenance during the Civil War period — when Alexandria was under Union occupation and many local institutions struggled to function — compounded the damage.
The solution was to replace the tall steeple with a lower cupola. The repair was part of a substantial 1871 remodel of the building, though twisting and weather infiltration would continue to plague the structure for decades. The City of Alexandria fully restored the building in 1992, and the cupola was strengthened again in 2010 — 140 years after the original problem was identified…