Ever since the Industrial Revolution, the humble factory has been an engine of capitalism, a hub of manufacturing, a driver of economic production… you know, a place where we make shit. From textile mills and automobile assembly lines the application of the factory model has grown and expanded to include places where laborers workers associates can churn out just about anything! We’ve got the Cheesecake Factory and the Burlington Coat Factory. There’s Charlie’s eponymous Chocolate Factory as well as the immortal songsmiths of the C+C Music Factory [Editor’s note: It remains unclear what lyrical manufacturing process resulted in the line “I’m just a squirrel trying to get a nut, so move your butt,” but whatever they were doing in that factory, it was working]. And of course, here in Alexandria we have our own factory. Its workers are powered by creativity, its production line generates artistic expression, and it’s celebrating its 50th birthday this week.
If you’ve lived in Alexandria for more than ten minutes, we’re guessing that you’ve visited the Torpedo Factory, and that you’ve astutely surmised that it used to be a lowercase-t torpedo lowercase-f factory. So smart, our readers! But did you know that after it stopped making underwater boom-boom bullets, the building served as a Raiders of the Lost Ark-style repository where the government stored Nuremberg trial documents and dinosaur bones??? That’s right folks, this building killed Nazis, prosecuted Nazis, and was basically the first Jurassic Park. It was like the plot of every Steven Spielberg movie combined. Bet you’ll think about that the next time you wander in after brunch to look at pottery!
Eventually it became clear that using prime waterfront real estate to store the Alien Autopsy files and the real film of the JFK assassination [Editor’s note: maybe! You don’t know!] was not exactly the highest and best use of the building, and in 1974 a group of visionaries in the Alexandria art community asked the feds if they could clear out the T-rex tibias and fibulas and put the building to more productive use. You can learn all about that history in this excellent podcast interview with one of the aforementioned visionaries, Marian Van Landingham. It’s thanks to her and others that the building is now home to the nation’s largest number of publicly accessible artists’ studios under one roof (plus an archaology archaleogy archaeology museum!).
You have to remember, back then there was really nothing else going on down at the waterfront—it wasn’t the busker mecca-cum-meteorite crash-landing site that it is now. The factory’s transformation into an art center helped change and revitalize the area in a way that we’re still reaping benefits from today. It’s a testament to the importance of having a vision to continue making our city better and working hard to bring that vision to life.
That’s not to say it’s been smooth sailing for the last half-century, as the Torpedo Factory has been no stranger to controversy during its tenure. Alexandria being Alexandria, many Old Town residents initially opposed the idea of the art center at the outset. Its management has changed hands several times. More recently there was that whole kerfuffle over how artist space is allocated, and who can forget the confusion that was thrust [Editor’s note: sorry] into the public’s attention over the proposal to install “gloryholes,” which are spaces used to blow something other than glass glass. This continues to today, as the city asks itself what a thriving version of the Torpedo Factory looks like, and how it can continue to meet the needs of a diverse cross-section of stakeholders from artists, to residents, to visitors.
It’s obvious that as a tourist attraction, it’s a key asset to the city: a 2017 study found that the Torpedo Factory is the most-cited major attraction of visitors to Old Town, 83% of its visitors come from somewhere outside Alexandria, and the people who visit end up spending money here. But it’s also pretty widely acknowledged that the facility isn’t meeting its full potential. Sure it’s great that out-of-towners are stopping by to chat and ask questions of fiber artists while they knit crochet and watch other artists meticulously hand-paint Pokemon cards and blast acrylic onto canvases with a leaf blower [Editor’s note: this is all for real, you’ve got to check it out] but why aren’t more locals coming in? It’s not a promising sign that in a 2020 community survey, some of the most frequent responses to “When you visit the Torpedo Factory, why do you go there?” were “air conditioning” and “bathroom.”
If Alexandria is serious about advancing the conversation about what to do with this facility, we need to agree on an answer to one question: what is it that we want to “make” in our factory? Art has always been the main product, and we wholeheartedly agree that that shouldn’t change. But what are our other goals—how do we make this the best possible version of an arts-first space? Are we hoping to mass-produce tourism dollars? Manufacture entertainment opportunities for Alexandrians? Build a (more heavily-used) community gathering place?
What all those objectives have in common is getting more people in the door, and there are a number of proposals on the table that could balance them pretty well (even the gloryholes) [Editor’s note: THEY’RE FOR BLOWING GLASS]. The 2017 study we mentioned earlier suggested that the Torpedo Factory should “become more extroverted,” a thing that no one has ever said to Jesse but that makes a lot of sense in this context. Making the first floor more dynamic, with interactive activities for visitors; diversifying the types of art that are represented to better include performance art; optimizing the space for after-hours events; and better linking the building to increasingly-pedestrianized King Street—all while maintaining as much artist studio space as possible—are options that we should seriously consider. As we’ve written about before, change can be scary, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. These updates shouldn’t be viewed as an attack or a threat, but an opportunity to modernize our factory and help it thrive for another fifty years.
Things You May Have Missed Because You Have a Life
Party with the fastest man in the world? PARTY WITH THE FASTEST MAN IN THE WORLD!
We’ve clearly reached the point where Alexandria automatically gets put on every listicle ever published because there’s no other way to explain our inclusion in “Dreamy American Beach Towns That Are Straight Out of a European Postcard.” Although… this would certainly go a long way toward explaining why Mayor Wilson keeps hanging out in Waterfront Park in a Speedo.
The fall makers market at Port City Brewing is this Saturday, and Del Ray Artisans and Lost Boy Cider are co-hosting the HalloWEIRD art market next weekend, confirming once again that it’s an exciting time to be a fan of drunk handicrafts shopping (IYKYK).
The developer working on the Landmark Mall redevelopment has announced that it’s more than halfway done with constructing the site’s underground infrastructure. That’s great, because nothing says “we’re on track” like a lot of progress no one can see.
In other West End news, Alexandria has lost its only Red Lobster, and with it, our shared dream of running into Beyonce and Jay-Z on date night.
Local Discourse Power Rankings
Off the Veep End (Last week: 1). We are confident there will come a week when this does not occupy the top discourse slot [*coughs* NOVEMBER 5TH *coughs*] but that week is not now. Judy Lowe Park is now on a semi-reopened schedule depending on the extent of the security perimeter, which is tracked by this new handy bot. The return to activity at the park was accompanied by some new public art in the form of chalk drawings and messages on the concrete barriers around the site. And while the overall effect was definitely “Berlin Wall meets Bluey” it was well within standard operating parameters for the prevailing neighborhood vibe and ethos (remember, this is a place where even the bagels are proud comrades in the fight to seize the means of production). Which made it all the more absurd when the powers that be painted over the chalk sloganeering. What happened, did no one have a hose long enough to reach from the nearest fire hydrant? Who paints over chalk! That’s it’s whole deal! It’s temporary and washable! This would be like your friend dropping by your office and drawing boobs on your whiteboard, and instead of just erasing them and calling him an asshole you demolish and remodel your entire fucking office. Absolutely insane choice, we almost got to hand it to them.
This Old House (Last week: NR). The city is moving forward with its renovations of City Hall and Market Square, this week announcing the selection of the design team. We’re not entirely sure why this was necessary, as the city already has 159,467 [Editor’s note: updated population data, bitches!!] experts on historical conservation and interior design. Want to update that second floor bathroom that the Planning Department uses? Nope, sorry. Hand pumped toilets were good enough for George Washington and they’ll continue to be good enough for you all too.
Is Our Children Learning (Last week: NR). If you are an ACPS parent there is one thing above all else you’ve noticed so far this year. No it’s not the difficulty of logging into Canvas from ParentSquare because you forgot your PowerSchool password after you tried to update your SchoolCafe account. Nor is it the challenge of remembering the names of all your kid’s classmate’s parents after not seeing them for three months (“hey you, how was your summer??”). No, what you’ve most noticed is the fifteen text messages you get a day about adjustments to bus routes and coverages because apparently hiring bus drivers is harder than a Boeing executive trying to get two astronauts back from space. Every day your phone buzzes multiple times an hour to let you know that Bus 22 is covering for Bus 784, but only after it finishes its route covering for Bus 6, which was previously Bus 784 but is now Bus 69, which is covering for Bus 22. This clearly is not great! And while we can only imagine that it’s not the easiest role to hire for (“sure you have to put up with high pitched screaming and the occasional puke clean-up, but at least the pay is low!”), at the same time, this is no way to run a
railroadbus service. Let’s get creative here ACPS, surely there is some other resource we can leverage here and get our student transportation back up to snuff! I mean, it’s not like the city runs free buses that students and families could use, right?You Idiots Are Doing This Road Wrong (Last week: NR). When Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote his classic novel about a poor student who kills an old lady for money (150-year-old spoiler alert!), there was a reason he didn’t just call it Crime. Typically when an act is established as illegal there’s some sort of consequence attached to getting caught doing that thing. Yet in a lucky break for local Raskolnikovs, this little detail got overlooked when the school zone speed camera ticketing program was set up last year. As pointed out in an article this week one-third of those tickets remain unpaid because the city doesn’t boot cars for speed infractions and state law doesn’t consider camera tickets “moving violations” for which points can be assessed on someone’s license. Meanwhile, City Council says they won’t send unpaid tickets to collection agencies. Officials are now “considering a plan to recover unpaid fines,” but you’re not leaving yourselves a lot of options, guys!! Since all the standard options appear to be eliminated we’re clearly gonna need an alternative approach. We suggest making it so unpleasant to have outstanding speed ticket debt that people will be desperate to comply. For example, until you pay your fines, you get a phone call once an hour on the hour that forces you to listen to a dramatic reading of your speeding violation by the most disappointed voice on earth: your mom. Now that’s a punishment even a Russian novelist would respect.
Overheard in ALX
From ALXNow:
“Drivers headed to Shirlington will have to take a detour through Alexandria next week, offering Arlingtonians a glimpse at life once Alexandria finally annexes Shirlington.”
Vernon… thank you.
We Get Letters
From reader Melynda Wilcox, author of Port City Notebook:
I'm currently channeling all of my nervous energy between now and November into creating a Substack newsletter that will spotlight progressive candidates running in close and consequential races around the country that are worthy of readers' consideration for a donation.
I'd be grateful if you could mention it in your newsletter...thank you in advance!
Happy to do so Melynda, and congrats on channeling your nervous energy into something productive. We wish we could say we’re doing the same, but it looks like Jesse is eating stupid foods and Becky is doing Succession memes as debate commentary (naturally). Ah well, it’s like Bernie Sanders said: from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.
One Awesome Thing in ALX
We’ve written previously in these pages [Editor’s note: “pages”] about the city’s ongoing work to commemorate the 1939 Alexandria Library sit-in, but those efforts recently took an exciting technological turn. The library announced in August that it received a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, a federal agency that we’ve definitely heard of before, to digitize 4,370 pages of letters, library board minutes, city government documents, and biographical stories of the sit-in participants, all of which will be posted on the library’s website.
As part of this project, the library has acquired something called a “planetary instant capture” system, which is a fancy camera set-up that disappointingly does not have anything to do with swiftly stealing Uranus. But you know what’s not disappointing? Now that they have all this equipment, they can digitize all sorts of other things as well: the mystery stains inside the picture books, all the unwanted copies of Hillbilly Elegy that have been donated to the book sale, the library’s archive of old menus from defunct waterfront restaurants, back issues of hard-copy civic association newsletters documenting the fight to save the city’s 112th oldest lamppost. The possibilities are endless!
The library (together with its nonprofit partner New America) received $150,000 through this grant, so we just have one question: how do we get in on this? We’ve got bills and we’re really good at scanning. Okay, we’re mediocre at scanning. Fine, we only manage to line the paper up with the edge of the scanner about a third of the time, it’s just that it always slides around in there after you close the lid. We’re doing our best, nobody’s perfect!!! Anyway, this project is fantastic—it’s highly commendable that our city not only makes an effort to remember its own history (even the unflattering parts) but also shares that history with the public so that we can all learn from it together.
You can follow Becky @beckyhammer.bsky.social and Jesse @oconnell.bsky.social on Bluesky, or you can e-mail us anytime at alxtranewsletter@gmail.com.
ALXtra is a free-to-read newsletter about current events in Alexandria, Virginia. Subscribe to get it delivered directly to your inbox. Paid subscriptions give you access to the comments. Revenue from subscriptions gets used in the following ways: 1) a third goes into a charity fund, and every time that fund hits $500 we’ll make a donation to a local charity in the name of ALXtra’s readers and we’ll feature and write about that organization; 2) another third of the money will go toward investments in the newsletter; and 3) the final third of the money goes toward self-care for your two intrepid authors.