Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
See link(s) below to view additional documentation.
VLR Listing Date 11/16/1971
NRHP Listing Date 05/05/1972
NHL Listing Date 02/16/2000
NRHP Reference Number 72001417, 00000259
George Washington moved to Ferry Farm, situated across the Rappahannock from Fredericksburg, with his parents from Little Hunting Creek, Fairfax County, in 1738, when he was six years old. Here he spent most of his boyhood, and here are set the legends, made famous by Parson Mason Locke Weems, of his cutting down the cherry tree and throwing a stone (in later versions a silver dollar) across the river. Washington’s widowed mother remained at Ferry Farm until 1772. The one early structure on the property, a frame outbuilding, dates from the early 19th century, but the archaeological remains of earlier buildings are present. In 1996, in the wake of threatened commercial development, seventy-one acres of the original Washington property were acquired by Kenmore Plantation and Gardens which uses the site for interpretive programs relating to George Washington’s youth.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Updated: April 3, 2019
