transferred several times, the property was redeveloped for commercial use. During its five years of operation, about 1800 contrabands and freedmen were buried in the cemetery.
Beginning in 1987, when memory of the cemetery was revived, the City of Alexandria began the process of saving the cemetery to create a memorial park. During 2008, submissions in a design competition for the memorial were received from 20 countries, and a design for the memorial was selected. As of late 2008, construction of the memorial was underway.
20th century
In 1914, Agudas Achim Congregation was founded. In 1930, Alexandria annexed the Town of Potomac. That town, adjacent to Potomac Yard, had been laid out beginning in the late 19th century and incorporated in 1908. In 1969 and 1976 Pope John Paul II visited Alexandria when he was known as Karol Cardinal Wojty?a. He was guided by a Polish Catholic priest from St. Mary's Catholic Church in Alexandria.
