Woodlawn Plantation

Woodlawn, Alexandria, Virginia

There are a number of historic homes in the D.C. area, the most famous of which is Mount Vernon. And, nearby GW’s crib in Alexandria are several other historic homes including Woodlawn & Frank Lloyd Wright’s Pope-Leighey House. They both sit on the same property, so visiting them is sort of a package deal and makes it one of the more unusual historic and architectural house museum properties in the country. This post will be about Woodlawn and I’ll discuss the FLW (Frank Lloyd Wright) house in the next.

   
The Woodlawn property was owned by George Washington and in his will he gave 2000 acres and money to build a mansion to Major Lawrence Lewis and Eleanor (Nelly) Parke Custis, his nephew and step- granddaughter. Lewis and Nelly were married in 1799 and the house was completed in 1805. Washington had asked he first architect of the U.S. Capitol, William Thornton to design the mansion which has both elements of Georgian and Federal styles. 

   
The mansion’s most distinctive design features are the two wings connected by hyphens (connecting hallways) coming out from each side of the core block of the house. The wings originally housed the kitchen and plantation office. Originally the hyphens were simple covered walkways, but renovations in the early 20th century raised the hyphens by half a story to create more rooms. The visitor entrance and gift shop are housed in the left (north) hyphen as you approach the house from the parking lot.

   
Inside, the main block of the house is decorated with period furniture. The formal parlor and dining room are on the south side of the central hall and Thornton designed the parlor with a higher ceiling for proper acoustics; it is referred to as the Music Room. The tour takes visitors up the main staircase, which makes a beautiful oval shape when looking down from second floor. The Marquis de Lafayette stayed in the house on his return visit to the U.S. in 1824 and a travelling desk that belonged to him is set up in one of the upstairs bedrooms. There’s a lot of good information about the architecture online here in Woodlawn's National Historic Landmark Nomination paperwork.
   
Some 90 slaves would have worked on the property during the Lewis’s time, but when Quakers bought the property in 1847, they wanted to show that abolition wouldn’t destroy the Southern economy and that successful farms could be run without slave labor. Whites and free blacks, some former slaves from Mount Vernon, owned and worked the plots at Woodlawn and a Quaker meeting and school used part of the house. The article here points to research done about Woodlawn during the Civil War indicating that the farmers formed their own militia to protect against raiders from both armies.
   
After several other owners, The National Trust for Historic Preservation leased Woodlawn in 1951 and then in 1957 purchased it. The mansion was opened for tours in 1952 making it the National Trust’s first historic house museum. The National Trust is now working with an organization called Arcadia (their website is here) that is using some of Woodlawn’s land for a sustainable food and farming project. Visitors can see the garden from the driveway when pulling into the property.
   
The tour guide was very knowledgeable and the tour was about 45 minutes. Both houses are open for tours Friday through Monday from 12 noon to 4pm. The cost for touring both Woodlawn and the Pope-Leighey House is $15 and the official website for both houses is here. You can see more photos of Woodlawn online here and here.
   
The two other closest historic sites are Mount Vernon and Gunston Hall, George Mason’s home. You could certainly visit Woodlawn & Pope Leighey and Gunston Hall in the same day and really half a day if you pushed it. And at Woodlawn you are less than ten miles south of historic Alexandria with lots of historic sites and places to eat.

Links: Official website for Woodlawn & Frank Lloyd Wright's Pope-Leighey House
          Woodlawn National Historic Landmark Nomination
          Arcadia website
          National Trust article about Woodlawn
          Architects Design blog photos of Woodlawn
          Colinspics photos of Woodlawn