Woodlawn

In December 1793, George Washington called Woodlawn "a most beautiful site for a Gentleman's seat" and presented two thousand acres of his Mount Vernon estate to his nephew Major Lawrence Lewis and Eleanor "Nelly" Parke Custis, Martha Washington's granddaughter, after their February 22, 1799 wedding. Built atop Grey's Hill on a site selected by the first President, Woodlawn was completed in 1805. Along with the Dr. William Thornton-designed house and existing outbuildings, the plantation landscape included "a large brick barn, farm house, corn houses, sheds," and Washington's grist mill and distillery complex. Dwellings for the enslaved people, located in several places on the plantation, were described as "composed of rough logs, piled above each other, with the seams smeared with clay."

Woodlawn, Virginia · United States