The plantation home of Augustine Washington and his second wife, Mary Ball Washington, once stood here. George Washington—farmer, general of the Continental Army, and first president of the United States—was born here on February 22, 1732. He lived here only three years, but returned often during his youth and came to know Popes Creek Plantation well. The house remained in the Washington family until 1779, when it burned in a Christmas Day fire. Its exact location remained hidden under deepening soil and thickening underbrush for the next 150 years. White oyster shell fragments on the ground mark the foundations of the birth house.