author
Gay Montague Moore
A devoted historian and preservationist, she helped bring early Alexandria vividly back to life in her writing. Her best-known work explores the town’s colonial past and its ties to George Washington with a clear love for place and detail.
1 Audiobook
Seaport in Virginia George Washington's Alexandria
by Gay Montague Moore
About the author
Gay Montague Moore was an American historian and local preservationist best known for Seaport in Virginia: George Washington’s Alexandria. Her work centered on Alexandria, Virginia, and especially the city’s 18th-century life, architecture, and civic history.
She is also remembered for her long connection to the Fairfax–Moore House in Alexandria. State preservation records describe her rescue of the deteriorated house as an important early moment in Alexandria’s preservation movement, and note that she lived there from 1919 until her death in 1988.
Reliable biographical information about her personal life is limited in the sources I found, so this profile focuses on the parts of her life that are well documented: her writing, her historical research, and her lasting role in preserving Alexandria’s past.