Alexandria Hospital, Duke Street 1918.

This 2023-24 exhibition marked the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Alexandria Infirmary — today’s Inova Alexandria Hospital. Women established and sustained the hospital by fostering community support, making it one of Alexandria’s most community-based enterprises.

Healthcare in Alexandria took a big step forward when a group of Alexandria women led by Julia Johns met to organize the Infirmary in December 1872. Through their efforts, townspeople were no longer required to go to Richmond or Washington, D.C. to receive hospital care.

Alexandria, VA, December 12th, 1872
At a meeting of ladies called by Miss Julia Johns to meet in the lecture room of St. Paul’s P.E. Church in this City, with a view to the formation of a Society, to establish and control a Hospital for the sick among the respectable laboring classes.  There were present, the following named persons:

— Minutes Book, Alexandria Infirmary

Julia Johns’ group became the Board of Managers, also called the Board of Lady Managers. From the institution’s beginning and throughout its history to the present, women have played a key role in the hospital’s administration, patient care, and support.