About The George Washington Foundation

The George Washington Foundation is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization, headquartered in historic Fredericksburg, Virginia, that owns and operates Historic Kenmore and George Washington’s Ferry Farm. The Foundation relies on support from its generous donors and volunteers to steward its properties and for its ongoing programs.

The mission of The George Washington Foundation is to enhance the public understanding and appreciation of the lives, values, and legacies of George Washington, Fielding and Betty Washington Lewis, and the people who lived and worked on the properties with them.

They rallied the resources to purchase Kenmore, the house completed in 1775 by George Washington’s sister Betty and her husband, Fielding Lewis. Launching the campaign, then Vice President Calvin Coolidge said, “It ought to be preserved for its own sake. It must be preserved for patriotic America.” The Kenmore Association saved the house from commercial development and it opened to the public in 1925.

In 1996, the Kenmore Association saved another Washington family landmark, Ferry Farm, where young George grew to manhood along the Rappahannock River. The site was purchased to save the tract from threatened encroachment and to protect its view shed.

Ceilings, cornices, and over-mantels were cleaned, restored, and white-washed. The functions of the rooms, now definitively identified as the Chamber, Dining Room, and Drawing Room, were uncovered through architectural clues and details. Each room changed significantly, transformed from inaccurate color schemes to accurate, but bolder and more surprising, colors. Driven by careful research, carpets were added to the Dining Room and Drawing Room. Family portraits were rehung in the exact locations where they hung in the Lewis era.

The team discovered remains of a large structure in 2006. Size, location, and artifact mix suggested it might be the home of the Washingtons. After two years of excavation and artifact analysis, Foundation archaeologists formally announced in 2008 that the structure was indeed the Washington house. That same year, the Foundation changed its name to The George Washington Foundation.

The Foundation charged forward with its multi-year venture to physically develop Ferry Farm into an outdoor living history museum. The first phase of the project included building an interpretive replica of the Washington house.