Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

WAKEFIELD, the birthplace of George Washington, is situated on Pope’s Creek, an estuary of the Potomac River. The mansion house was built by Augustine Washing-ton about 1718. It was burned December 25, 1780. Under an act of Congress the home is to be rebuilt by the Wakefield National Memorial Association. The site is owned by […]

Few of the great homes in Virginia have a more commanding prospect or more glorious setting than Chatham, situated on a bluff overlooking the Rappahannock River, just opposite Falmouth. Chatham has a wide sweep of the river, up and down the valley, whose waters give access to the Northern Neck, that source-house of genius from […]

Falmouth, the thriving but still quaint little village on the banks of the Rappahannock opposite Fredericksburg, is truly the latter’s sister community. Both were incorporated in the same act of the Virginia General Assembly in 1727, but both had their actual beginnings before that time. Fredericksburg’s origin is clearly traceable. That of Falmouth, unfortunately, is […]

Kenmore was for many years the home of Colonel Fielding Lewis, whose wife, Betty, was the beloved sister of George Washington. Colonel Lewis was a patriot of distinguished ability, and gave all of his great fortune to carry on the manufacture of small arms and ammunition at Fredericksburg where the first guns for the Revolutionary […]

The Marye house, now known as Brompton, standing where long ago one of the homes of the Willis’s, of Willis Hill stood, is today a handsome, imposing brick structure with white-columned porch that overlooks the city of Fredericksburg and the plain nearer the Heights, across which thousands of Federal soldiers charged to their death during […]

When George Washington was in Pennsylvania with Brad-dock, he became attracted to a young Scotch physician named Hugh Mercer, who he induced to come to Fredericksburg. The building which Dr. Mercer is said to have used as an apothecary shop and office has been restored. It stands on the corner of Amelia and Caroline Streets. […]

The Revolutionary War was over, and the Westmoreland County lad, James Monroe, who had some years before left William and Mary College to fight for American liberty, found himself at the age of twenty-one a full-fledged lieutenant-colonel with no profession. He chanced to be a father-less boy, and in his extremity it seemed natural for […]

Federal Hill was built by Sir Alexander Spotswood, a colonial governor of Virginia. Tradition says it was constructed for state purposes and by order of Queen Anne. It is a fine example of Queen Anne architecture with a severely plain exterior. The interior contains exquisitely carved wood-work of great dignity, and the stairway is quite […]

One of the famous pre-Revolutionary gathering places of Northern Virginia was the Rising Sun Tavern on Caroline Street, known more familiarly to the men of that day as Weedon’s, after its proprietor William Weedon-friend of George Washington-who became a general in the Continental army, was wounded at Brandywine and later led the Virginia troops at […]

MODERN progress has touched Fredericksburg, some-times ruthlessly, but it has not entirely obliterated all traces of the old village that had such an intimate touch with colonial history. There will be found spots that are remindful of the grace and elegance of the past; of candlelight, and shadows cast by blazes from logs burning in […]