COVID NOTICE
WHM cares about the health and safety of our volunteers, staff and guests, so we have made some changes to our procedures and tours. To make your visit as safe and welcoming as possible, we have enhanced our cleaning measures and their frequency, require social distancing and face coverings that cover the nose and mouth, and have altered our tours to eliminate as much back-tracking as possible.
We are working hard to do all we can for your continued health, and ours.
Visit Washington Heritage Museums
Mary Washington
House
1200 Charles St, Fredericksburg, VA 22401
(540) 373-1569
Museum Store Entrance on Lewis St
Hours: 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM*
* Hours subject to change. Please call before arrival
HOURS
Friday – Monday, 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Closed: Thanksgiving Day, December 24-25, 31 and January 1
ADMISSION FEES
Heritage Pass – Multisite Admission - $18 - BUY NOW
Adults - $7 Children 6-18 - $3 Children under 6 - free
Washington Heritage Museums Members FREE - JOIN TODAY
PROPERTY HISTORY
ca. 1772 In 1772, George Washington purchased a house from Michael Robinson in Fredericksburg, Virginia for his mother. Mary Ball Washington spent her last seventeen years in this comfortable home.
The white frame house sits on the corner of Charles and Lewis Streets and was in walking distance to Kenmore, home of Mary's daughter Betty Washington Lewis. Tradition has it that, during the Revolution, General Lafayette came by the home seeking a visit with Mrs. Washington and found her working in her garden. The President-to-be came to this home to receive his mother's blessing before attending his inauguration in 1789.
In 1890, the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, later named Preservation Virginia acquired the Mary Washington House and saved it from certain destruction. The house was slated to be disassembled for travel to the 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition and reassembled there for display. The organization opened the house to the public in 1903. The house later underwent an extensive restoration and was reopened to the public in 1931.
Hugh Mercer
Apothecary Shop
1020 Caroline St, Fredericksburg, VA 22401
(540) 373-3362
HOURS
Friday – Monday, 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Closed: Thanksgiving Day, December 24-25, 31 and January 1
ADMISSION FEES
Heritage Pass – Multisite Admission - $18 - BUY NOW
Adults - $7 Children 6-18 - $3 Children under 6 - free
Washington Heritage Museums Members Free - JOIN TODAY
PROPERTY HISTORY
ca. 1772 This eighteenth-century building was restored to house the Hugh Mercer Apothecary Shop, a museum of medicine, pharmacy, and military and political affairs. Dr. Mercer served the citizens of Fredericksburg with medicines and treatments of the time. Leeches, lancets, snakeroot, and crab claws made up just some of the remedies. Dr. Mercer practiced medicine for fifteen years in Fredericksburg. His patients included Mary Washington. Dr. Mercer left his practice to join the Revolutionary army and died as a Brigadier General at the Battle of Princeton.
Rising Sun Tavern
1304 Caroline St, Fredericksburg, VA 22401
(540) 371-1494
HOURS
Friday – Monday, 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Closed: Thanksgiving Day, December 24-25, 31 and January 1
ADMISSION FEES
Heritage Pass – Multisite Admission - $18 - BUY NOW
Adults - $7 Children 6-18 - $3 Children under 6 - free
Washington Heritage Museums Members Free - JOIN TODAY
PROPERTY HISTORY
ca. 1760 Built by George Washington’s youngest brother Charles around 1760 as his home, this frame building became a tavern in 1792 when it was purchased by the Wallace family. It operated for 35 years as a stopover for travelers in the bustling port town of Fredericksburg.
Preservation Virginia acquired the Rising Sun Tavern in 1907 and completed a series of restorations including the front porch. Much of the beautiful woodwork in the tavern is original.
St. James' House
1300 Charles St, Fredericksburg, VA 22401
(540) 373-5630
Home of WHM offices
HOURS
We hope to make tours at St. James’ House available beginning in April, 2021 for Garden Week, then again in the first week of October, 2021.
ADMISSION FEES
Adults - $5 Children 6-18 - $3 Children under 6 - free
Washington Heritage Museums Members Free - JOIN TODAY
PROPERTY HISTORY
ca. 1760's The St. James' House was built around 1768 and is one of the few eighteenth-century frame houses still standing in Fredericksburg. The house was originally home to James Mercer, an attorney, a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, first judge of the General Court in Fredericksburg, and the attorney who drew up the will for Mary Washington. Mercer built the house on land once owned by Fielding Lewis, brother-in-law of George Washington.
The house is particularly noted for the collection of antique furniture and decorative arts assembled by Daniel Breslin and William Tolerton, who restored St. James' in the mid-1960's and bequeathed it, along with an endowment for its perpetual care, to Preservation Virginia.