You probably know a plumber who can tell you what's going on beneath your house, but how about one who can tell you what's been happening beneath your feet for the last 300 years?
Meet Alex Smith, better known online as Alex the History Plumber. He's a Virginia Beach tradesman with a fascination for the strange, surprising, and sometimes downright unbelievable history of Hampton Roads.
WHRO's Chuck Doud brought him into the studio for an interview.
ALEX: One of the biggest hurdles as a business owner is people have to know you exist. They've got to know you're around to even call you.
So my thought process was, let me marry all of these talents that I have. Let me create this history page. Turns out, I actually really enjoy doing it, and it's sort of taken off like a rocket.
CHUCK: So what was the story that started it, that took you down the proverbial rabbit hole?
ALEX: Well, the Witch of Pungo. I mean, everybody knows Witchduck Road. They sort of know that it has something to do with ducking a witch.
A lot of people have this misconception that she actually was killed that way.
It's a really cool, niche story in our area that is really fascinating the more you get into it. You know, the video, if you've seen it, it's only like a minute long. But I mean, you could make a video on this for hours.
CHUCK: Yes, a very interesting person. The story of Grace Sherwood is just one of those where, I mean, it crosses so many lines and parallels across the decades.
And I'm also curious. One of the things I love about your videos is that you find history in places that most of us don't even give a second thought to, right? But what makes you look at an ordinary street or a building or a patch of land and think, "Hey, there's a story here"?
ALEX: I wish I had an amazing answer for you, but it's really quite simple.
I mean, I just look at it, and I have a question, and I Google it. And actually, going through this process of posting content, it's been amazing to see the community support and the people commenting with their own questions.
I'm starting to realize that there are so many unanswered questions that a lot of other people also have. So a lot of my videos I'm pulling actually from the collective consciousness, and I try to give credit to the people who give me the ideas.
CHUCK: And that kind of takes me to the next question, which is how do you even figure out if a story is true? Because there's so much that needs to be verified.
ALEX: I think of something... I do the research. I do a quick Google search, and then I'll try to fact-check, try to find some official sites that have some information. I also run it through AI, and I'll run it through a couple of different AI models to try to find the true stories, because as we all know, AI loves to hallucinate.
CHUCK: One of the ways I heard it explained was the use of AI is a good ingredient, but it's not the recipe. It's getting better, but it's got a long way to go.
ALEX: Yeah, it's getting better, but you do have to check it.
One thing that I try to make very clear is that I have a lot of respect for historians. I would not call myself a historian.
I'm an entertainer, and I tell history stories.
CHUCK: And you're a plumber too, so let's not forget that!
All right, now we're going to put you to work.
What is one story that you were researching that you think people would hear and go, "Wait a second, that really happened here?"
ALEX: I would say the Adolph Coors one is a pretty hard hitter.
CHUCK: I was going to say this one, because this is where the founder of Coors beer, Adolph Coors, apparently died at the Cavalier Hotel. So yeah, tell us that one.
ALEX: Yeah, so he came with his family. I believe it was his wife and his granddaughter, and they were all... they all had the flu, or they were all sick.
So they came to Virginia Beach, to the Cavalier Hotel, to sort of recover and just take a couple of weeks away from everything. That's what brought them here.
And supposedly he died falling from a window at the Cavalier Hotel.
So the spooky thing is that they say he couldn't have jumped because the window was actually locked.
ALEX: That he supposedly fell out of.
Whoever pronounced him dead said it was like heart failure or natural causes, which, you know...
CHUCK: That sends someone out a locked window!? Okay…
ALEX: Yes, so there's speculation it was some sort of mob hit, but never confirmed.
CHUCK: Is that something that you'd want to continue, to go more in-depth and explore?
ALEX: For what I'm doing, I find that the really quick facts, that's what I really like to do.
CHUCK: All right, last question. What has all of this taught you about yourself? Not just Alex the History Plumber, but Alex Smith?
ALEX: Social media has opened just an insane amount of doors for me that I never even thought possible.
Which is ironic because I'd say probably about ten years ago, I went dark on social media just because I didn't see the value.
And reflecting back on it, I think I was probably just scared to be myself.
You know, because everybody likes to judge you and whatever.
And when I made the decision to start my own business, I was like, "You know what? I'm done caring about what other people think. I want to just be myself, and we'll see how the world takes it."
Because I've got a lot of love and a lot of stories and a lot of talents that I want to give to the world.
So I let fear go, and I just posted it.
And it's been absolutely insane and been miraculous to watch the growth.
CHUCK: Awesome. Well, listen, I want to thank you for what you do, both as Alex Smith and as Alex the History Plumber, for bringing just positive, entertaining, really interesting content back to social media.
ALEX: Thanks, I appreciate it.
CHUCK: Look for Alex the History Plumber online everywhere: Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, @AlexTheHistoryPlumber.