Tim Rose Builds Alexandria History Tours Into a Growing Local Business

Alexandria, VA – When Tim Rose takes visitors into Christ Church and shows them George Washington’s pew, some tell him they get chills. Rose understands. To him, the pew is more than a stop on a walking tour. It is a place where people can feel a connection to those who came before them.

“That sense of connection, purpose, and reverence is at the heart of Alexandria History Tours,” he said. “We are not simply showing people old buildings or reciting dates.”

Rose did not set out to become a tour guide. He spent ten and a half years in the Marine Corps, eight on active duty and two and a half in the Reserve. A high school student when 9/11 happened, he made a vow to serve his country and became an infantry officer.

“I believed the Marine Corps was a calling, and I remain deeply proud of my service,” he said.

After leaving the military, Rose earned an MBA and went into investment banking. He liked the hard work and the pace, but something was missing. “I did not believe finance was my calling,” he said. “I wanted to start something, build something, and create an enterprise that had genuine meaning.”

In 2021, Rose and his wife, Tyler, moved to Alexandria to be closer to family in Richmond. He had visited the city only once before. Once he began walking its streets, he was struck by how much history surrounded his new home.

“I was blown away by the depth of the city’s history,” he said. Washington’s ties to Alexandria especially caught his attention: the buildings and streets that help tell the story of the future president’s life, and the neighbors, friends and fellow veterans whose lives intersected with his.

Rose saw a connection to his own path. Many of the veterans whose stories he researched returned from service to build families, businesses and institutions. In Alexandria, he, too, was starting a family and building a business.

What began as curiosity grew into Alexandria History Tours in 2023. Today, the veteran and locally owned company has a team of guides and offers public and private walks through Old Town. Its tours explore Washington, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and the broader history of the city. The company’s website reports more than 700 five-star reviews.

Rose’s approach is to give visitors people to remember, along with places. “We certainly talk about the funny, quirky, and deeply human sides of historical figures,” he said. But he also wants guests to consider the choices they made and the sense of duty that shaped their lives.

That interest took him from the sidewalks to the page. His book, George Washington and Alexandria: A Founding Friendship, was published by The History Press in February 2026. Rather than treating Alexandria as a footnote to Mount Vernon, the book follows Washington’s relationship with the city and the people who helped shape it.

Rose has found another audience far beyond Old Town. In a daily social media series, he told the stories of all 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. In a post about the completed project, he reported more than four million views across Facebook and Instagram. He said the series brought the company more than 7,000 new Instagram followers and more than 20,000 new Facebook followers. Across those two platforms, he reported more than 50,000 followers, up from fewer than 1,000 a year earlier.

Those are striking numbers for a local history company, but Rose sees the response as evidence that people still want to hear these stories. Online, he has only a short video to make a historical figure feel human. On a tour, he can bring guests to the place where that person lived, worked or worshipped.

Christ Church brings that purpose into focus for him. Washington worshipped there; generations later, Winston Churchill attended a National Day of Prayer service there on January 1, 1942. Rose asks visitors to think about what it means that leaders separated by centuries sought a moment of humility in the same place.

“Our national heroes are heroes because they embodied virtues that remain essential today: duty, sacrifice, service, dedication, courage, and loyalty,” he said. Rose does not regard them as perfect. He believes their lives still offer something to consider in the present.

The company’s tagline is “Good people giving great tours!” Its flagship Discover Alexandria walk introduces guests to Old Town’s many layers; other tours focus on Washington and the wars that shaped the city. Rose hopes visitors leave with more than photographs of old buildings.

“These leaders are gone,” he said, “but their stories remain in our books, buildings, churches, and oral histories.” For Rose, sharing those stories has become the meaningful enterprise he was looking for.

Alexandria History Tours offers public and private tours. Details and booking: alexandriahistorytours.com⁠.