In 1669, Scotsman John Alexander purchased the land of present-day Alexandria from an English ship captain for "six thousand pounds of Tobacco and Cask." By the 18th century, this area had become a prominent center for the export of the profitable crop tobacco.

Incorporated in 1749, Alexandria became a busy seaport filled with brigs, schooners and ships of the line that traversed the high seas en route to England and the Caribbean. The streets were lined with substantial brick houses, and the "sound of the hammer and trowel were at work everywhere." In 1796, a visitor, the Duke de La Rochefoucauld Liancourt, commented that "Alexandria is beyond all comparison the handsomest town in Virginia-indeed is among the finest in the United States."