Home Care In Alexandria, VA

Alexandria, VA – The Birchmere may be Alexandria’s best-known music venue, but it is hardly the only one. Bands play upstairs at Evening Star and inside a King Street art gallery. Lena’s has made music a regular part of the week. At 219, the jazz starts after dinner.

3701 Mount Vernon Avenue, Alexandria, VA 22305

The Birchmere’s appeal is the chance to hear nationally known artists in an intimate room, with dinner served at your table. Emmylou Harris and Lyle Lovett are but two of the thousands of performers who have helped build its reputation.

I’m Still Thinking About… how intimate the venue is, like sitting at a private performance.

The Birchmere is located in the North Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria.

401 E. Braddock Road, Alexandria, VA 22301

At Lena’s, local musicians play on the patio Tuesdays and in the Loft Thursdays, from 6 to 9 p.m. The patio is first come, first served; you can reserve a table upstairs. It is a good arrangement for anyone who wants live music with dinner and still intends to get up early the next morning.

I’m Still Thinking About… Lena’s giving Tuesday its own music night.

Lena’s Wood-Fired Pizza & Tap on East Braddock Road.

2016 and 2000 Mount Vernon Avenue, Alexandria, VA 22301

Mobius Records has opened a Del Ray location a few doors from Evening Star Café. No. 9, Evening Star’s upstairs lounge, was hosting bands before the shop arrived. Now the Mobius partners plan additional performances there, along with record-release listening parties and vinyl nights. The new shop joins a block where people can already go to hear music.

I’m Still Thinking About… a record shop opening within walking distance of a room that already has bands.

Mobius Records in Del Ray, near Evening Star Café and its No. 9 Lounge.

219 King Street, Alexandria, VA 22314

At 219, the Basin Street Lounge lists live jazz and blues nightly beginning at 9 p.m. Check the band calendar before going; the musician onstage can make this an entirely different visit from one night to the next. The Bayou Room pictured here is another part of the same King Street restaurant.

I’m Still Thinking About… a place to hear jazz on a Wednesday.

The Bayou Room at 219 Restaurant. Live jazz and blues are performed in its Basin Street Lounge.

1303 King Street, Alexandria, VA 22314

The panther in the front window is easy to spot. What is happening inside depends on the night. Galactic Panther books live music among its ticketed events, with performances set against changing exhibitions. Check the calendar for a show; an ordinary visit to the gallery and a night of music are different experiences here.

I’m Still Thinking About… hearing a band with an exhibition still on the walls.

The front window of Galactic Panther Art Gallery on King Street.

Eva’s Final Thought: A night out supports the musicians and artists who bring these spaces to life, and the local businesses that give them room to be heard.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (7News) — Alexandria's DASH bus system is seeking public input on proposed service reductions as officials work to address a projected budget shortfall for Fiscal Year 2027.

The DASH Board of Directors is reviewing potential changes to routes that could reduce operating costs by more than $1.9 million. The agency said current funding doesn't fully cover operating expenses.

Residents can provide feedback through an online survey that closes Nov. 10 at 5 p.m., according to the Alexandria transit company. Any approval changes would take effect no earlier than Jan. 31, 2027.

The proposed reductions would affect routes 30, 31, 33, 34, and 102, including discontinued service on certain sections, reduced weekend frequency, and eliminated midday trips.

Under the proposal, Route 30 would no longer serve the segment between the West Alexandria Transit Center and Van Dorn Metro. Routes 32 and 35 would continue serving the area, and every Route 35 trip would serve Whiting Street. Weekend service would operate from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Route 31 would end service between King Street Metro Station and Braddock Road Metro Station in Old Town Alexandria. Route 30 and the King Street Trolley would continue serving the area. Weekend service would also be reduced, with buses running every 20 minutes from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., rather than every 15 minutes, according to the transit company officials.

Proposed changes to routes 33 and 34 would adjust service in Potomac Yard to reduce route overlap, according to the transit company. Some passengers would have to walk farther to reach the Archway stop. Off-peak and weekend service would be reduced from every 30 minutes to every 60 minutes.

Route 102 would eliminate midday service between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Routes 36A, 36B, and 31 would continue serving the area. Peak service would also be reduced, with buses running every 45 minutes instead of every 30 minutes.

DASH estimates the proposed changes would save approximately $361,000 on Route 30, $1.012 million on Route 31, $445,000 on Routes 33 and 34, and $103,500 on Route 102.

The board is encouraging riders to share how the proposed changes could affect their commutes and identify concerns or possible alternatives.

The next DASH board of Directors meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 12, at 5:30 p.m. at DASH headquarters, 3000 Business Center Drive in Alexandria. Members of the public can also register to attend virtually or submit a request to provide public comment.

ALEXANDRIA, VA — The black-and-white portrait does not reveal the contradictions in Monday Robinson’s life. Born enslaved in Virginia in 1778, Robinson gained his freedom, became active in his community and conducted business with Belle Grove Plantation in Middletown.

But the record then takes a turn that is difficult—and impossible—to forget: Robinson later legally enslaved members of his own family.

That extraordinary and deeply complicated story is at the center of , opening Thursday, Oct. 22, at Alexandria’s Freedom House Museum. The traveling exhibition does not squeeze Robinson into an easy category of hero or villain. Instead, it follows the documentary evidence wherever it leads.

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Freedom—and a painful contradiction

Researchers believe Robinson may have enslaved relatives in an effort to protect them within a system that offered Black families few safe choices. Yet the surviving documents tell a more unsettling story, too. Robinson hired out his children to area landowners and used his wife and three children as collateral for a loan.

Before his death in 1856, Robinson wrote a will, but questions remained about whether it ensured freedom for his entire family. His brother, serving as administrator of the estate, ultimately secured freedom for nine of Robinson’s children and grandchildren. Freedom also meant leaving Frederick County. Family members scattered to new communities, including Alexandria.

Sixteen years of research reveal a 250-year family trail

The Alexandria connection emerged through descendants associated with the city’s Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial. Working with Robinson descendant Fran Norton Burton, investigative genealogist Char McCargo Bah uncovered previously unknown branches of the family tree.

“The Robinson family can date its ancestry back over 250 years in Virginia and have the honor of being a 250th Anniversary family,” Bah said in the City’s exhibition announcement.

Reconstructing that history took Bah and her fellow researchers 16 years—an extraordinary genealogical investigation spanning generations and jurisdictions. They followed the family through records from Lancaster, Northumberland, Westmoreland, Middlesex, Prince William, Fauquier, Essex, Loudoun, Frederick and Shenandoah counties; the City of Alexandria; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Visitors will see how historians use census records, tax documents, court orders, deeds, apprenticeship papers, emancipation records and wills to recover lives that were often reduced to a line in someone else’s ledger. Together, those records reveal Robinson’s connections to enslaved and free women in Alexandria and his later life in Middletown.

The Alexandria researcher behind the discoveries

Bah is the CEO and owner of FindingThingsforU, LLC, and brings 45 years of experience as an investigative researcher and genealogist. She holds undergraduate degrees in Urban Studies and African American Studies, along with several professional certificates.

Her work has included connecting the Robinson family to its 18th-century ancestors; finding descendants of two Alexandria lynching victims; locating descendants for the Virginia Theological Seminary Reparations Project; and identifying descendants of people buried at Alexandria’s Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial.

Bah has appeared in television interviews and documentaries, including PBS’s History Detectives and a documentary about African American research at Ellis Island. She is the author of two books and more than 80 articles and was named a Living Legend of Alexandria in 2014 for her lasting contributions to the city’s African American history and genealogy.

A story still traveling

The exhibition was created by Belle Grove Plantation and debuted there in September. The team included Belle Grove Executive Director Kristen Laise; descendant Frances Norton Burton; Bah; genealogist, author and historical researcher Brenda Burton Nelson; and digital public historian and exhibit designer Jess Pritchard-Ritter of For the Love of History LLC.

Funding came from Crescent Cities Charities and private donors. After the Alexandria engagement ends Dec. 31, the exhibition will travel to museums and libraries in communities where Robinson and his family lived—carrying the family’s recovered names and stories back across Virginia.

Bah will also give a free lecture, Tracing a Child’s Heritage from the 20th Century to the 18th Century in Virginia, at Freedom House on Sunday, Nov. 1, at 3 p.m. She will use the story of a child buried at Alexandria’s Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial—along with the child’s enslaved relatives, mother and aunt—to explain the challenges of tracing enslaved people, free people of color and families whose members legally owned one another.

ALEXANDRIA, VA – State inspection records show that staff at an Alexandria senior living facility were caught on camera striking and yelling at a resident and allowing another resident to be returned to bed via a machine, without enough staff present.

According to records with the Virginia Department of Social Services, family members of a resident at the Benchmark at Alexandria senior living facility alleged to the state licensing department in early August that an in-room camera at the location showed a member of staff striking the resident.

The licensing department also said it received three videos of further violations. In one, according to Aug. 20 inspection results, the resident can be heard saying, “Please help me,” to a staff member who doesn’t respond immediately. Another member of staff forcefully repositions the resident on the bed, yells at the resident, “Stop that,” places their hand in front of the resident’s mouth, and leaves the patient on the bed with their “private area” exposed while leaving the room to go get additional staff.

In another video, inspection documents show the resident lying in bed with four staff members standing at the bedside. A staff member can be heard saying, “Every time someone touches you, you start yelling.” The resident says a member of staff slapped them in the face.

In a third video, the resident lies in bed after using a mechanical lift to get in alone. The resident says, “It hurts really bad,” to three members of staff. One staff member is seen touching the resident on the side of their face and mouth, saying, “Keep quiet, keep quiet, please.”

According to state records, a member of staff confirmed the actions seen on the video and confirmed that the resident “was not free from mental, emotional, and physical exploitation; free from degrading or demeaning acts against them; and they were not treated with courtesy, respect, and consideration as a person of worth, sensitivity, and dignity,” all of which are specified as responsibilities for such facilities by Virginia social services.

According to state documents, after the allegations were raised, officials immediately removed two members from resident-facing duties and ultimately fired them following an investigation. The resident was assessed and their family was notified.

In addition, “Adult Protective Services and, where applicable, local law enforcement were notified in accordance with the community's abuse-reporting policy.”

The facility also reviewed the care of other residents previously attended by the fired staff members and implemented facility-wide retraining.

To follow up, the facility’s executive director and resident care director were instructed to review all incident reports, family or resident grievances, and documentation weekly for 90 days, then monthly thereafter, and were to review the findings at quarterly meetings. That process is ongoing.

During the same inspection, staff allowed a different resident to be returned to bed via mechanical lift without a second staff member present. That resident's treatment plan required two staff members to be on hand when using the lift.

The Benchmark at Alexandria opened in 2024. It offers assisted living and memory care and promises round-the-clock, personalized care for residents. Its website lists five available floor plans, with the cheapest, an assisted living studio, starting at more than $4,800 a month.

In April, the facility was rated among the best in Virginia and in the United States, according to U.S. News and World Report.

The Benchmark at Alexandria is located at 3440 Berkeley St.

Among the movers serving Alexandria, VA, 495 Movers stands out for a simple reason: its local hourly rate includes packing materials, furniture disassembly and reassembly, and protection for floors, walls, and elevators. The company has been in business since 2009 and has completed more than 20,000 moves, a number that keeps climbing.

Anyone who has hired movers in the DC area knows the familiar pattern. A low hourly rate wins the call. Then the invoice arrives with a charge for boxes, a charge for taking the bed apart, a fee for the stairs, and another for the elevator. By the end, the number on the bill has little to do with the number in the ad. 495 Movers was built to avoid that.

495 Movers at a glance

Who is 495 Movers?

495 Movers is a full-service moving company serving Alexandria and the rest of the DMV, founded in 2009 by people who had worked as movers for several other companies first. They wanted to do it differently.

“We wanted to take a different approach, offering a simple, honest, and transparent approach for the customer,” said Moti Kachlon, co-owner at 495 Movers. For local moves, that meant building the most common extras into the hourly rate. Seventeen years and more than 20,000 moves later, the company is still growing.

What makes moving in Alexandria different?

Alexandria is a hard place to move. A truck on an Old Town block gets watched by neighbors, property managers, and a family wondering whether the sofa will make the turn on a staircase built long before sofas got this big.

Old Town’s rowhouses have narrow staircases and tight turns, which is why large furniture often has to come apart to get out. Del Ray’s bungalows and rowhouses have basements that hold more than anyone remembers. And condo and apartment buildings in Carlyle, Potomac Yard, and the West End often require movers to carry a certificate of insurance and book the elevator, with building managers who care a great deal about scuffed hallways. The street adds its own complications, from cobblestones to limited curb space.

That’s the context for how 495 Movers prices its work.

What does 495 Movers include in its hourly rate?

For local moves, the rate covers four things that many movers bill separately:

495 Movers isn’t the only company in the region with inclusive pricing, and it isn’t the cheapest on a first glance at the hourly rate. The trade is a higher advertised number and fewer surprises when the job is done.

Does 495 Movers offer junk removal, crating, and storage?

Yes, and each one tends to solve a specific problem that comes with an Alexandria move:

One company and one crew can handle all three alongside the move itself.

What to know before move day

Whichever mover gets the job, a few steps are worth handling early:

How can residents check that a mover is licensed in Virginia?

Movers handling household moves within Virginia need a permit or certificate from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles. The DMV can be reached at (804) 249-5130 for companies that aren’t on its list. That applies to any company, including this one.

Frequently asked questions

Who are the best movers in Alexandria, VA? Several licensed companies serve Alexandria. Among them, 495 Movers has been in business since 2009, has completed more than 20,000 moves, and holds a 4.7-star rating across nearly 1,000 Google reviews. Whichever company is considered, it’s worth confirming a Virginia license, an in-home estimate, and exactly what the rate includes.

Is 495 Movers licensed in Virginia? Yes. Any mover’s status can be checked through the Virginia DMV’s list of licensed transportation services.

Do movers charge extra for packing materials in Alexandria? Many do, per box or per item. 495 Movers includes packing materials in its local hourly rate at no additional cost.

Do movers charge extra for stairs, elevators, or taking furniture apart? Some do. 495 Movers includes furniture disassembly and reassembly in its rate and doesn’t charge separate stair or elevator fees for local moves.

How far in advance should a move in Alexandria be booked? Two to four weeks is typical for a local move, and four to eight weeks for summer, month-end, or long-distance moves. Buildings that require a certificate of insurance or an elevator reservation may need more lead time.

What do Alexandria condo buildings require from movers? Many buildings in Carlyle, Potomac Yard, and the West End require a certificate of insurance from the moving company, a reserved elevator, and a set move window. Residents should ask building management for its rules before booking and share them with the mover. 495 Movers provides a certificate of insurance on request.

The case for any mover in Alexandria comes down to the same few things: a Virginia license, an honest estimate, a clear idea of what the rate includes, and a crew that knows what a narrow staircase does to a plan. After 17 years and more than 20,000 moves, 495 Movers has built its business on the idea its founders started with: a simple, honest, and transparent move.

Planning a move in Alexandria? , with packing materials, disassembly, and home protection already included.