The turquoise brick building with the brick-red tin roof at the end of Prince Street houses Alexandria's "rock shop," Olde Towne Gemstones. Inside is a treasure trove of fossils, rocks, minerals and crystals from every corner of the world. Olde Towne Gemstones even boasts specimens of the Virginia state fossil, the scallop Chesapecten jeffersonius.
Customers include collectors, meta-physicists looking for crystals, people making jewelry (a new drill can add holes for beadwork), and little boys fascinated by shiny rocks.
Owner Mike Young notes that Olde Towne Gemstones has been around long enough to see those little boys bring in their own little boys and even their grandsons, which Young attributes to following L.L. Bean's business philosophy "Sell a good product at a fair price, treat your customers like human beings, and they will always come back."