Escape to the Northern Neck

Northern Neck of Virginia, April 7, 2012:  Our Easter getaway was a leisurely weekend on the Northern Neck.  From D.C. the usual entrance is the US 301 bridge across the Potomac:

WAKEFIELD--Our first stop was the George Washington Birthplace National Monument in Westmoreland County. 

George Washington's great grandfather settled this Popes Creek plantation in 1657 and George was born in the 18th century mansion house in 1732.  The mansion burned in 1779.  In the early 20th century the property became a national monument and, with funding by John D. Rockefeller, an 18th-century style "memorial" house was built on the property.

View accross Popes Creek, a bay off the Potomac River

The right half of the clapboard kitchen survived the fire; the brick memorial house is 20th century.

An oyster shell path outlines the footprint of the birthplace mansion.

A colonial revival kitchen garden (left).

The front of the memorial house (right).

View across Popes Creek and across the Potomac to Southern Maryland.

Spring leafing, redbud and dogwood.

 

An osprey (left).

 Apple blossoms (right).

 

This flask (above) was original to the burned mansion and sits on the gate leg dining table (left).

 

 

 

The Washington family burial ground lies about a mile west near the site of an earlier family homestead.  In the early 20th century, it was excavated and fenced off from animals.  Thirty-two remains were re-interred in 1930, among them George Washington's great-grandfather John Sr., grandfather Lawrence, and father Augustine.

 

 

At the nearby Potomac shore.

KING CARTER'S CHRIST CHURCH--Our next stop was historic Christ Church near the Rappahannock shore.  The original wooden church was funded by John Carter in 1670.  His son Robert "King" Carter built a more substantial Georgian brick church on the original foundations in  1735.  As resident agent for Lord Fairfax's extensive Virginia property, Robert amassed a very large fortune and is the progenitor of the saying, "A Carter in the South is worth two Vanderbilts in the North."