Old Town Alexandria historic district
Alexandria Colonial Tours says it has run Alexandria's Original Ghost & Graveyard Tour since 1985, and its team page says the current owner has run the company since June 2001. Press counts of the tour's age vary: Connection Newspapers wrote in 2006 of more than 18 years, and The Zebra in 2015 of thirty-some years. The company's office is at 201 King Street, and in 2026 it added a Georgetown walk, the Georgetown Ghost, Vampires & Witches Tour, whose website names Glenridge Tours of 201 King Street, Suite 302, as the operator (see the Georgetown Ghost Tours record).
Public tours meet at Ramsay House, 221 King Street, which a City of Alexandria guide calls the official Visitor Center and says was built in 1724. Guides wear colonial dress and carry lanterns. The Ghost & Graveyard Tour runs about an hour over roughly six blocks and ends in a graveyard rather than where it began. Guests can ask for a North or South Route when booking, and the operator says each route has its own stops and stories; Washingtonian noted in 2022 that which churchyard a group reaches can depend on the night.
The operator also sells a Ghost & Pirate Tour from the Old Town Shop, a seasonal Holiday Haunts walk, and an Alexandria History Tour of eight to ten blocks. It lists an African American tour on the lives of enslaved and free Black residents of the town from 1749 to 1865, with inquiries through its contact page, and offers private tours, school and large-group tours, and speaking engagements. Visit Alexandria, the city's tourism office, lists the company, and press coverage runs from 2006 to WJLA in 2025.
Sources
- https://www.alexcolonialtours.com/
- https://www.alexcolonialtours.com/services-1
- https://www.alexcolonialtours.com/the-team
- https://www.alexcolonialtours.com/general-5
- https://www.alexcolonialtours.com/tickets
- https://www.alexcolonialtours.com/georgetown-tours
- https://visitalexandria.com/listings/alexandria-colonial-tours-2/
- https://www.alexandriava.gov/sites/default/files/2023-03/historic-alexandria-scavenger-hunt.pdf
- https://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2006/oct/25/something-strange-in-old-town
- https://thezebra.org/2015/10/11/the-ghosts-of-alexandria/
- https://washingtonian.com/2022/10/19/these-historical-ghost-tours-explore-the-dc-areas-spooky-past/
- https://wjla.com/news/local/alexandria-old-town-ghost-tour-colonial-creepy-virginia-history-fairfax-street-story-carlyle-house-october-halloween-spirits-legends-unknown-soldier-historian-store-homes-haunted
ApparitionsTouching/pushingPhantom footstepsOrbsObject movementPhantom sounds
Guides' stories and press accounts from the tour's owner and manager: testimony and legend, not established fact.
At Carlyle House, the owner told Northern Virginia Magazine in 2020, two guides each felt a tap on the right shoulder on the lawn with no one there. The manager told WJLA in 2025 that people report orbs there.
At Gadsby's Tavern, the guides tell the legend of the Female Stranger, an unnamed woman who died at the tavern in 1816. The owner told NBC Washington in 2017 of a guide who followed a woman into Room 8 and found only a lit lantern too hot to touch.
On the South Route, the guides tell the Burning Bride story, a young woman's death in a fire in 1868, which the tour places at 107 North Fairfax Street, now a shop. The owner said some have reported a woman weeping at eleven o'clock and objects moving.
The tours end in churchyards. The Zebra reported in 2015 that photos taken after the tour at the Old Presbyterian Meeting House sometimes show a swirl of white smoke, which the owner said was not smoke or haze. The manager told WJLA that people report a figure near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. A guide told Connection Newspapers in 2006 of footsteps that followed him from the Christ Church churchyard down Cameron Street.
Atlas Obscura writes that some local residents believe the Wilkes Street Tunnel, on the Ghost & Pirate Tour, is haunted.
Notable Entities
The Female Stranger (Gadsby's Tavern legend)The Burning Bride (the tour's name for the Laura Schafer story)
Media Appearances
- Spooky spots to visit in Old Town Alexandria this October (WJLA 7News, 2025)
- These Historical Ghost Tours Explore the DC Area's Spooky Past (Washingtonian, 2022)
- What's it like to be a ghost tour guide? (Northern Virginia Magazine, 2020)
- 5 Historic Ghost Tours (Arlington Magazine, 2018)
- 'A Chill Went Down My Spine': 3 of Alexandria's Spookiest Ghost Stories (NBC Washington, 2017)
- The Ghosts of Alexandria (The Zebra, 2015)
- Something Strange in Old Town (Connection Newspapers, 2006)
Where this legend is told
