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Survey of
Historic Sites and Buildings

	GEORGE WASHINGTON BIRTHPLACE NATIONAL MONUMENT Virginia	George Washingon Birthplace NM
Location: Potomac River 38 miles east of Fredericksburg; address, Washington's Birthplace, Va. 22575. George Washington Birthplace National Monument Historical Handbook

George Washington was born at his father's tidewater plantation on February 22, 1732 (February 11 by the old-style calendar). Here he spent the first 3 years of his life before moving to the plantation farther up the Potomac that became Mount Vernon. The earlier plantation passed to his half brother, Augustine Washington, Jr., and the home burned to the ground during the Revolutionary War.

Aerial view of George Washington Birthplace National Monument, from northeast. Popes Creek in foreground. (U.S. Department of Defense photo.)

Part of the birthplace site became a Federal area in 1882, and the Wakefield National Memorial Association later helped to acquire additional land. This organization also conducted extensive research to determine the original appearance of the plantation, but failed. A memorial mansion was therefore built. Patterned on tradition and surviving structures of the period, it is intended to represent the typical 18th-century Virginia plantation house such as Washington was probably born in. A mile northwest of the memorial mansion is the family burial ground containing the graves of many of Washington's forebears.