Woodlawn Historic District Added To Virginia Landmarks Register

On Thursday, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources added Woodlawn Cultural Landscape Historic District and five other sites to the Virginia Landmarks Register.

The site has a rich history stretching from the 18th to the 20th century. The land began as a plantation George Washington owned before passing it on to his ward, Eleanor Parke Custis, and her husband. The 2,000-acre property diminished in size when Fort Belvoir expanded.

Properties within the historic district include the Woodlawn Plantation, George Washington’s Grist Mill, Woodlawn Quaker Meeting House and Burial Ground, Frank Lloyd Wright's Pope-Leighey House and the Otis Tufton Mason House. These sites were individually added to the Virginia Landmarks Register. The Woodlawn Plantation and Pope-Leighey House are sites of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

As a former plantation—and an integrated community of free blacks and whites starting in the 1850—the site has a rich African-American heritage. The integrated community emerged when abolitionist Quakers bought the property around 1845. The purpose transformed into small farms that free blacks and whites could own.

The Pope-Leighey House, built in 1940, adds a touch of 20th century history. Woodlawn and Frank Lloyd Wright's Pope-Leighey House has tours from April to December. Meanwhile George Washington’s Distillery and Grist Mill has seasonal tours hosted by the Mount Vernon estate.

Other new additions to the Virginia Landmarks Register are in Amherst, Carroll, King and Queen, Loudoun, and Wise Counties. The department also approved a boundary increase for the already listed Norfolk Auto Row Historic District. The sites will be nominated for the National Register of Historic Places.

Here are the new Virginia landmarks:

• Fairfax County's Woodlawn Cultural Landscape Historic District
• Wise County’s Big Stone Gap Downtown Historic District
• Carroll County’s Woodlawn School
• King and Queen County's Bruington Rural Historic District
• Loudoun County's James Farm
• Amherst County's Thompson’s Mill–Amherst Mill Complex

Pope-Leighey House image via M. Enriquez/Visit Alexandria