The Friendship Firehouse Museum occupies Alexandria's oldest surviving fire station, established in 1774 as the city's first volunteer fire company. The Victorian-era brick building on South Alfred Street was constructed in 1855 and houses a collection of 19th-century firefighting equipment: hand-pumped fire engines, leather water buckets, brass helmets, and hooks and ladders.
The museum is small but focused, and the equipment is in excellent condition. The story of volunteer fire companies in early American cities — civic organizations that were also social clubs, political machines, and mutual aid societies — is told through the Friendship Company's records. It is a good complement to the grander historical sites of Old Town and can be visited in under an hour.