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Washington, Virginia

Washington, Virginia, “The First Washington of all”, was surveyed by George Washington when he was seventeen years old.  He was assisted by John Lonem and Edward Corder on the 4^th of August, 1749.  This peaceful little town is situated in the magnificent foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  It is located on the Lee Highway, sixty miles from our national capitol.  It is the county seat of Rappahannock County.

“Little Washington”, as it is known, is in the northwestern gateway to the Shenandoah National Park.  The scenery in the area is unsurpassed.

The neighboring communities include Front Royal, 18 miles to the north; Warrenton, 22 miles east; Culpepper, 25 miles south; and Luray, 21 miles west.  This area is one of the greatest apple bearing sections of the world.

There are twenty-eight towns named Washington.  The second was founded in Massachusetts on April 12, 1777.

John Jett, John Calvert, William Porter, and James Green founded “Little Washington”.  Each man had a street named for him.

John Jett built Ellerslie Plantation in 1815.  The garden was filled with English boxwood.  In 1926 the beautiful old English boxwood was removed to the Bishop’s Garden at the National Cathedral.  It was a gift from the Reverend William A. Lane Jett.  It took twelve tractor trailer trucks to move the boxwood to the garden.

A museum honoring George Washington is located in Washington, Virginia.  It is the only one in this country devoted exclusively to the General.

In 1944, the Honorable A. Willis Robertson of Virginia, a member of the House of Representatives registered Washington, Virginia, “The first Washington of all,” in the Congressional Record.

Peg Stein

2003