The Wilkes Street Cemetery Complex: A Walking Companion

Twenty-two stops among the most historic cluster of cemeteries in the United States.

This is the official companion to the Gravestone Stories walking tour of Alexandria's Wilkes Street Cemetery Complex — thirteen historic cemeteries clustered in a single walkable complex, holding more than 35,000 stories, about one mile west of Old Town.

In walking order, meet a Boston Tea Party participant buried beside his son, the Confederacy's highest-ranking general; the U.S. Senator whose removal from a British mail ship nearly brought England into the Civil War; the 443 United States Colored Troops whose 1864 petition created America's first integrated national cemetery; the Female Stranger, Alexandria's most visited grave; and Wilmer McLean, in whose parlor the Civil War ended. The walk closes at the oldest surviving federal monument in the United States — the 1791 boundary stone of the original District of Columbia.

Inside:

• All 22 tour stops in walking order, each readable in under a minute — at the graveside or at home after the walk
• The complete two-panel walking map of the complex
• Why these cemeteries exist: the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1803, the burial edict of 1804, and the founding of the grounds at Spring Garden Farm
• A guide to all thirteen burial grounds, including the ones the tour walks past
• Live links on every stop to the full research at gravestonestories.com
• Companion guides to all four Gravestone Stories walking tours

Every story is drawn from more than a decade of original research — over 400 documented burial biographies from Alexandria's historic cemeteries.

Tour guests receive this book free — ask your guide.

Digital PDF edition • 30 pages • By David Heiby • Published by Gravestone Stories, 2026