George Washington Birthplace Landscape: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, George Washington Birthplace National Monument

NPS Northeast Regional Office

George Washington Birthplace National Monument is a complex landscape composed of many layers of history. This site was well known to Algonquin Indians, as shown by archeological evidence. Between the 17th and 20th centuries, the site was primarily utilized for agriculture. The commemorative activities of the 19th and 20th centuries provided additional layers and landscape systems, but did not eradicate evidence of the Washington family occupation of the site. The park’s commemorative features, ranging from a granite obelisk to an entire plantation compound landscape, are also important historic resources in their own right. The park’s myriad of resources provide an understanding of centuries of cultural history, and yield insight into the early years of George Washington, and the ways in which he has been memorialized over time. In 1657, Henry Brooks became the first English patentee of this landscape. Throughout the remainder of the 17th century and most of the 18th century, the site continued to the settled and farmed. By the early 18th century, as many as six house sites had been developed between Popes and Bridges Creeks. Of these, one belonged to John Washington whose descendants continued to own land here until 1858. Agriculture was the primary early land use of the area, and access to the Potomac River was a critical component in the settlement of this remote site. Soon after acquiring land along Bridges Creek, George Washington’s great-great uncle, John Washington, constructed a home, family burial ground, and farmstead on his 125-acre property. John Washington farmed the land on a small-scale. After his death in 1677, the 125-acre parcel was inherited by son John Washington II. John II did not add significantly to his inherited holdings. John II’s brother Lawrence Washington, however, ultimately acquired 1,000 acres in the area. This land was subsequently inherited by his second son, Augustine Washington, in 1698. Washington family members continued to farm the land between Popes and Bridges Creeks throughout this period. Augustine Washington supplemented his holdings in 1718, through purchase of Abbington family land along Popes Creek. By this time, the Abbington tract was already a well-developed plantation with an existing dwelling. George Washington was born in 1732 in this existing dwelling, which had been extensively renovated by Augustine Washington between 1722 and 1726. Three years after George’s birth, the family moved to Augustine’s estate at Eppewasson (Mt. Vernon). George Washington continued to spend summers at the farm with his half-brother Augustine Washington II who inherited the property when their father died in 1743; George is said to have prepared two of his earliest surveys on the property while in his teens during the summers of 1747 and 1748. Washington family members by this time were well-established farmers who owned a large number of slaves and had become a part of the wealthy planter class. In 1762, Augustine Washington II died and willed the property to his son William Augustine Washington. It was during William Augustine’s tenure that the property was named Wakefield and the house in which George Washington had been born burned to the ground on Christmas day in 1779. William Augustine Washington and his family chose not to rebuild on the site but moved instead to Haywood, located nearby to the west of Bridges Creek. Commemoration of George Washington’s birthplace began as early as 1815, when one of his descendants, George Washington Parke Custis, laid a stone marker on the purported ruins of the birthplace house. The commemorative efforts on the site continued well into the 20th century, and the National Park Service acquired the property in 1930. The park landscape is currently in fair condition.

George Washington Birthplace Landscape: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, George Washington Birthplace National Monument

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