Living in History: 5 Great House Museums in Washington
Washington's most fascinating house museums allow visitors to relive history by roaming through rooms
Woodlawn Plantation
Photography by Todd Franson
One of the area’s first and most famous house museums is Mount Vernon, President George Washington’s plantation home near Alexandria. But there are two other notable historic homes on what used to be the same tract of land. Not quite a year before Washington died, he carved off 2,000 acres of his estate and gave the property as a wedding gift to Eleanor ‘Nelly’ Parke Custis, his step-granddaughter who he fostered as a daughter, and his nephew Lawrence Lewis. The lucky Lewises renamed the tract of land Woodlawn and built a stately Georgian/Federal plantation home designed by William Thornton, architect of the U.S. Capitol, at the request of Washington.
On a recent visit to the house, tour guide Daniel Schwarz pointed out the amusing linens in one bedroom, with a repeated stenciled image depicting Washington being crowned as if a deity. “They thought very highly of George Washington,” Schwarz said. No doubt if your relative was the first American President and had given you 2,000 acres of verdant, rolling hills plus designs for a mansion — and who knows what else? — you’d hold the man in particularly high esteem too. Alas, in this ever-evolving detective game known as historic house preservation, it’s not clear that this was the Lewises’ original fabric. In fact, Woodlawn is a particularly complicated case to solve all around, since the property changed hands eight times in the century before it became a museum in 1949. But at least the top cops are on it: The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which bought Woodlawn as its first-ever property in 1951.
Support Metro Weekly’s Journalism
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.