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M6 Sunday, August 19, 2007 The Washington Postx

re: Source

More on N.Y.-Style SlicesThe “best pizza” article

[Going Places, Where to Get aTrue Slice of New York, July 22]should have listed Rubino’s NewYork Style Pizzeria (2415Centreville Rd., Herndon,703-713-3335). It has greatN.Y.-style pies in a variety oftoppings and runs out of roomon most weekdays when thelocal workers descend on it forlunch and carryout. Slices rangefrom plain cheese to meat lover’sand chicken pesto. Most of thesame people keeping comingback. They also do a big familybusiness on nights andweekends.

They should not be missed. — Jon Spargur, Rockville

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RoadTrip

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A tall stone obelisk at the Ivy Hill

Cemetery memorializes seven

firefighters lost in an 1855 blaze.

Three years ago, Company No. 201 acquiredBoat 201, a 30-foot Metalcraft Marine vesselthat is berthed at Alexandria City Marina.It’s used for water rescues as well as fightingfires on the shoreline and in the water.

The 1926 Potomac Firehouse still has theoriginal entrance to the former Town Hall.

Tour the original steam engine that was

delivered by Union troops to the Relief Fire

Company, then adopted by her sister firehouse

next door, the still-operating Company No. 201.

The Friendship Firehouse Museum

was the city’s first volunteer fire station

— until volunteer firefighting was

prohibited during the Civil War and

the task was given to the Union Army.

Start here

Driver’s route

The Firehook Bakery ovenschurn out warm breads such asTuscan grain and Russian black.

Columbia Fire Company, which wasnamed after the brand of engine it used, isbeing turned into a Bookbinder’s restaurant.

A spoonful of the Terlingua RedChili at Hard Times Cafe willcause an inferno in your mouth.

The Relief Fire Company building was constructed in1853 and sold to an architect in the 1980s, who turned itinto a home but kept the firehouse’s name on the balcony.

Constructed in 1893, theReliance Firehouse hasbeen remodeled and nowhouses offices.

A plaque of a fire engine on theHydraulion Company’s exterioris the only sign that this now-residence was once the city’s firstmulti-bay firehouse (built in 1856).

Burning to know moreabout Alexandria’sfirehouses? Then stopby the Lyceum museum.Michael Miller is a whiz ofa research historian.

BRADDOCK ROAD

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A L E X A N D R I AIvy HillCemetery

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WHERE: Alexandria.

WHY: Historic firehouses, firefighter dress-up and the little steam enginethat did.

HOW FAR: About eight miles from start to finish, accessible by car or bike.

A ugust feels like a furnace. And while you can’t call the fire department for a cool hosing off, you can explore Alexandria’s centuries-old brickfirehouses.

The city, home to eight working firehouses, has quite the firefighting pedigree. OldTown’s Friendship Firehouse Museum, for example, once housed the Friendship Firehouse Company,

which was established in 1774 as a crew of volunteer firefighters. The corps counted the father of our country as oneof its own; George Washington even bought the company its first fire engine.

In 1855, Alexandria was hit with two big blazes. The first, in August, burned down the Friendship Firehouse. Thecommunity rallied, rebuilding on the site in time to reopen two months later. Then in November, a fire on the 100block of King Street devastated the city and killed seven volunteer firefighters, who are buried at the Ivy Hill Cem-etery. Not long after, paid firefighters were hired to protect Alexandria.

The sirens are now silent at the Friendship Firehouse, but alarms still ring at Alexandria’s oldest operating fire-house, Company No. 201. The 1915 structure still bears the tracks that horses used to pull the steam engine, the pre-cursor to the shiny red truck the company now employs.

Over in the Del Ray neighborhood, the building of Company No. 2, known locally as the Potomac Firehouse, onceheld Town Hall, its jail and, oddly, its vault. Young visitors are treated to plastic fire hats, and the crew will suit up todemonstrate the pole slide. Of course, when duty calls, everybody gets out of the way; it’s time to let the company gobeat the real heat.

— Karen Hart

Road Trip maps are available at www.washingtonpost.com/roadtrip, as are addresses and hoursof operation (be sure to check before you go). Have an idea for a trip? E-mail roadtrip@washpost.

com.

WEDNESDAY IN STYLE Escapes tries its luck at a racetrack and casino outside Philadelphia.MAP BY JEROME COOKSON FOR THE WASHINGTON POST; PHOTOS BY KAREN HART FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Firehouse History in Alexandria

Proofed by: phadkep Time: 17:10 - 08-16-2007 Separation: C M Y K HIGH-RES PROOF. IMAGES ARE RIPPED. FULL PROOF INTEGRITY.Product: SOURCE LayoutDesk: SOU PubDate: 08-19-07 Zone: DC Edition: EE Page: RDTRIP