The Franklin and Armfield Office
*The Franklin and Armfield Office opened on February 28, 1828. This office of American slave trading is a historic commercial building in Alexandria, Virginia (until 1846, the District of Columbia).
The 1315 Duke Street building is located just west of Alexandria's Old Town, on the north side of Duke Street, between Southwest and South Payne Streets. It is a three-story brick building, topped by a mansard roof and resting on a brick foundation. Its front facade is laid in Flemish bond, while the sides and rear are in common bond. It has Federal-period styling, with windows and the entrance door set in segmented, arch openings, and gabled dormers at the roof level.
It was first used as a private residence before being converted to the offices of the largest slave trading firm in the United States, started by Isaac Franklin and John Armfield. Another source, using ship manifests (lists of slaves) in the National Archives, gives the number "at least 5,000." After the War, the building's outlying slave pens, of which there are photographs, were torn down. The bricks may have been reused in the construction of the adjacent townhouses.
The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978 and has also been designated a Virginia Historic Landmark. The building was formerly owned by the Northern Virginia Urban League, which operated it as a museum, with exhibits about the slave trading firm and the life of a slave. The Northern Virginia Urban League purchased the building in the 1990s and installed an exhibit in the basement. The rest of the building was used for offices and classroom space. The Office of Historic Alexandria partnered with the Northern Virginia Urban League in February 2018 to maintain and interpret the building. That year, the Urban League received $50,000 from the National Trust for Historic Preservation's African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund.
The City of Alexandria purchased the building from the Urban League in 2020. The Freedom House Museum reopened in 2022. It houses three exhibits that tell the story of the Black experience in Alexandria and the United States. The City of Alexandria purchased the building in March 2020 and reopened it as a museum in June 2022.
