Historic house in Virginia, United States
United States historic place
Kenmore
, also known as
Kenmore Plantation
, is a
plantation house
at 1201 Washington Avenue in
Fredericksburg, Virginia
. Built in the 1770s, it was the home of
Fielding
and
Betty Washington Lewis
and is the only surviving structure from the 1,300-acre (530 ha) Kenmore
plantation
.
The house is architecturally notable for the remarkable decorative plaster work on the ceilings of many rooms on the first floor. In 1970 the property was declared a
National Historic Landmark
.
[1]
[4]
Kenmore is owned and operated as a house museum by The George Washington Foundation (formerly George Washington's Fredericksburg Foundation), and is open daily for guided tours. The Foundation also owns nearby
Ferry Farm
, where George Washington lived as a child.
History
[
edit
]
The house was completed in 1776 for Fielding and
Betty Washington Lewis
, the sister of George Washington. He was a
planter
and successful merchant in town. Their plantation grew tobacco, wheat, and corn by the labor of slaves.
[5]
The Lewises
enslaved
more than 80 people on the 1300-acre plantation, including a number of
domestic slaves
. The mansion's rear frontage was oriented to the Rapahannock River for easy transportation access.
Betty's mother
Mary Ball Washington
was buried on the grounds, which she had liked to visit. Lewis descendants sold the house and property in 1797 after Betty Washington Lewis' death. A memorial was erected in 1894 at the Mary Ball Washington gravesite.
The Samuel Gordon family purchased the property in 1819. They named it
Kenmore
for the home of their ancestors in
Scotland
. Other nineteenth century owners restored the plaster ceilings.
During the American Civil War, the
plantation house
and outbuildings were used as a makeshift Union military hospital after the
Battle of the Wilderness
in 1864. It was also used by federal troops on their way to Richmond at the close of the war.
[6]
In 1922 the Kenmore Foundation bought the property and began plans to preserve it. Two flanking dependencies were reconstructed. The landscaping was restored in 1924 by
Charles F. Gillette
.
[7]
Today the house and reconstructed dependencies stand on three acres of ground at 1201 Washington Avenue. It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
in 1969 and was designated a
National Historic Landmark
in 1970.
[4]
[3]
It is included in the
Washington Avenue Historic District
.
Kenmore Plantation in 2006
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
James Dillon (October 17, 1974),
National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Kenmore
(pdf)
, National Park Service
and
Accompanying nine photos, exterior and interior, from 1967, 1969, and undated
(32 kB)
- ^
"Virginia Landmarks Register"
. Virginia Department of Historic Resources
. Retrieved
March 19,
2013
.
- ^
a
b
"National Register Information System"
.
National Register of Historic Places
.
National Park Service
. January 23, 2007.
- ^
a
b
c
"Kenmore Plantation"
.
National Historic Landmark summary listing
. National Park Service. Archived from
the original
on December 31, 2007
. Retrieved
June 26,
2008
.
- ^
Loth, Calder, ed. (1999).
The Virginia Landmarks Register
. The University Press of Virginia. p. 183.
ISBN
0-8139-1862-6
.
- ^
"Heritage Sites & Organizations: Kenmore"
. Virginia African American Heritage Program. Archived from
the original
on September 27, 2007
. Retrieved
December 31,
2008
.
- ^
Library of Virginia: About the Charles F. Gillette Photograph Collection
External links
[
edit
]
Media related to
Kenmore (Fredericksburg, Virginia)
at Wikimedia Commons
- Official website
- Historic American Buildings Survey
(HABS) No. VA-305, "
Kenmore, 1201 Washington Avenue, Fredericksburg, Independent City, VA
", 63 photos, 5 color transparencies, 19 measured drawings, 3 data pages, 5 photo caption pages
- HABS No. VA-305-A, "
Kenmore, Office
", 1 photo
- HABS No. VA-305-B, "
Kenmore, Kitchen
", 2 photos
- African American Historic Sites Database
Archived
September 27, 2007, at the
Wayback Machine
, Virginia African Heritage Program
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