Archaeologists Find George Washington's Boyhood Home-UPDATES

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Will Lombardo and his mother, Jennifer, from North Stafford,
shovel dirt into the George Washington Boyhood Home 'dig'
to begin a six-week-long reburial.

HUGH MUIR/the free lance-star













                         George Washington's boyhood home foundation buried for the future







by Hugh Muir
Date published: 9/16/2008


                                                    "We are closing it to save it."

In a brief ceremony last Saturday, Dave Maraca, director of archeology for the George Washington Foundation, joined colleagues and public visitors to shovel dirt on to the historic site of the home where America's first president grew up.

The foundation of George Washington's boyhood home was formally unveiled July 2, after three years of excavation on the site at Ferry Farm, which overlooks the Rappahannock River in southern Stafford County. Now, after being visible to the public for three months, it will be buried again.

"Every day it erodes a little more," Maraca said, as some two dozen area residents gathered to help cover the roughly 60-by-30-foot foundation area. "We've done all we can do now," he said. "We left all the archeological elements of the house in place for the next generation."

However, the Ferry Farm dig has not ended. Already, there has been substantial digging east of the boyhood home site. The archeological team expects to find a dairy, storehouses, slave quarters and a kitchen building. "A dig will always be part of our story," Maraca said.



Nothing remains above ground of the one-and-a-half-story house where young Washington lived from the age of 6 through his teenage years. His father, Augustine Washington, moved the family to the site from George's birthplace at Wakefield, on Pope's Creek in Northern Neck, in 1738.



When Augustine died in 1743, George inherited the property at the age of 11. Around 1753, he left Ferry Farm for Mount Vernon, which he also had inherit-ed at the death of his half-brother, Lawrence. George's mother, Mary Ball Washington, stayed at Ferry Farm until moving into Fredericksburg in 1772.



After a series of ownerships, the house fell into disrepair and, according to historians, was "a complete ruin" by 1833. Four other houses have been built on the 113-acre farm, the first around 1700. That disappeared by 1725. The Washington home was the second, built in 1727. Two more went up in the mid-1800s and disappeared. The fifth was built in 1914; it burned down 80 years later.

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1700

There is evidence that a home--prior to the Washington's--was built on the property around 1700. It was gone by 1725.


1727

The Washington home was built at Ferry Farm.

1738

At age 6, George Washington and his family moved from Wakefield to Ferry Farm.

1743

Washington's father, Augustine, died, and George inherited the property at the age of 11.

1753

Around 1753, Washington left Ferry Farm for Mount Vernon.

1772

George's mother, Mary Ball Washington moved from Ferry Farm and moved into Fredericksburg.

1833

The house, which had had several owners, fell into serious disrepair.


1914

The fifth in a series of houses spanning the mid-1880s was built on the site. It burned down in 1994.

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Paula Raudenbush, director of marketing and communications
for the George Washington Foundation, drops in the first shovel
of dirt to rebury the foundation of George's boyhood home as
Dave Muraca, director of archaeology for the
George Washington Foundation, and the dig, looks on.


HUGH MUIR/the free lance-star









In the six years that archeologists have been at work there, the remains of all these structures have been found, identified and reburied. A number of outbuilding sites also have been discovered, and a few have been reconstructed. Starting next spring, the focus will be on finding remaining outbuildings linked to the boyhood home site.



It is expected to take until the end of October to complete the reburial of fragments of the foundation and three cellar areas, which are all that remain of young George's home. Then the site will be seeded over and allowed to disappear, although it is all carefully documented.



One cellar is described as "by far the best preserved part of the original house," according to Brad Hatch, an assistant site supervisor. The cellar's walls are built of cut blocks of Aquia sandstone from Governor's Island, the same type of stone used in building the White House and the U.S. Capitol.

The Ferry Farm area has been inhabited since the end of the last Ice Age. The oldest artifact found on the site is a Clovis point, a spearhead that is 10,000 years old. In excavating the Washington home site, "half a million artifacts have been found," Maraca said, most of them fragments from Colonial and Federal times.



The common link between the three main George Washington sites in this area is Mary Washington. She gave birth to George at Wakefield, raised him at Ferry Farm and, after her son moved to Mount Vernon, lived in a house he bought for her in Fredericksburg.



She died in 1789 at age 81, four months after attending George Washington's first inauguration as president.



Hugh Muir: 540/735-1975
Email: hmuir@freelancestar.com