LONG-SOUGHT BOYHOOD HOME OF GEORGE WASHINGTON FOUND
Cellars Contain Evidence from the Lives of Washington Family

Archaeologists working at the site of George Washington's childhood home in Stafford County, Va. have located and excavated the remains of the long-sought house where Washington was raised. The site was the setting of some of the best-known stories related to his youth, including tales of the cherry tree and throwing a stone across the Rappahannock River.

Digging at the Ferry Farm site in Stafford County, Va., the archaeologists say that evidence unearthed over seven seasons of excavation has positively confirmed the foundation and cellars that remain from the clapboard-covered wood structure that once housed George, his parents and siblings.

David Muraca, director of archaeology for The George Washington Foundation (GWF) working with historical archaeologist Philip Levy, associate professor of history at the University of South Florida, found from the evidence that far from being the rustic cottage of common perception, the Washington house was a much larger one-and-a-half-story residence, perched on a bluff overlooking the Rappahannock.

"If George Washington did indeed chop down a cherry tree, as generations of Americans have believed, this is where it happened," said Levy, whose research is partly funded by National Geographic. "There is little actual documentary evidence of Washington's formative years. What we see at this site is the best available window into the setting that nurtured the father of our country."

Although the 113-acre National Historic Landmark site called Ferry Farm was known to have been the former home and farm of the Washington family, several attempts by others to locate the house among remains of five farms that once stood on the land had failed.

Most of the wood and other elements of the original Washington structure are long gone – many of them "recycled" by builders of houses later built on the property or destroyed by Civil War troops who once camped there. However, archaeologists' excavation of the four cellars yielded thousands of artifacts — pieces of the house's ceilings, painted walls and family hearth; fragments of 18th-century pottery and other ceramics; glass shards, wig curlers and toothbrush handles made of bone. The cellars constituted a time capsule of evidence that helped the archaeologists confirm that they had indeed found the long-lost residence.

Called the Washington Farm in George's day, the place later became known as Ferry Farm, because of a ferry that linked it to Fredericksburg via the Rappahannock, just down the bank from the house. The Washington family moved to the site in 1738 from their previous home 45 miles away when George was 6 so that his father, Augustine Washington, could be closer to the Accokeek Creek Iron Furnace, which he managed.

For more information:

• Ferry Farm
• National Geographic