Couch Communiqué

Remains of the house where George Washington was raised have been located and excavated by archeologists at Ferry Farm, just across the Rappahannock River from Fredericksburg, Virginia. The archeologists have been working on the site for seven years and confirm finding the foundation and cellars. Far from being the rustic cottage of common perception, the house was a much larger one-and-a-half-story residence, perched on a bluff overlooking the Rappahannock. Washington use to swim in the river and take the ferry to Fredericksburg.

Most of the wood and other elements of the original structure are gone or were used by builders of houses later built on the site or destroyed during the Civil War. But as they dug through layers of soil, the archaeologists found remains of two chimney bases, stone-lined cellars and root cellars.

Washington grew to adulthood at the farm and eventually moved to his half-brother’s estate at Little Hunting Creek, south of Alexandria, Va., later renamed Mount Vernon.

The eventual goal is to rebuild the home as it was in the 1740s.