A timber-frame reconstruction of George Washington’s boyhood house will soon be erected at Ferry Farm, his boyhood home in Stafford County.
Blue Ridge Timberwrights is creating the structure in Christiansburg, Va., with Mesick Cohen Wilson Baker Architects. It will be installed at Ferry Farm in June 2016.
In 2008 The George Washington Foundation announced archaeologists working at the site located and excavated the remains of the long-sought house where Washington was raised.
“Using evidence unearthed over seven seasons of excavation, archaeologists have positively confirmed the foundation and cellars that remain from the clapboard-covered, wooden structure that once housed George, his parents, and his siblings,” The Foundation announced.
“Modern timber frame structures feature exposed interior timbers,” said Ellen Garren of Blue Ridge Timberwrights. “The heavy timbers of the frame are joined together by means of traditional mortise and tenon joints secured with wooden pegs. The timbers are left exposed and become the focal point of the structure.”
George Washington was six when his family moved to the Stafford County farm in 1738. The Washingtons called it Home Farm, but it later became known as Ferry Farm because people crossed the Rappahannock River on a ferry from the farm to the town of Fredericksburg.
Today Ferry Farm is an historic site run by The George Washington Foundation. It is located at 268 Kings Hwy, Fredericksburg, Va. 22405.
