Travel Virginia
Waving from the Rising Sun Tavern.
Journey Back in Time George Washington would still recognize his old hometown of Fredericksburg, Virginia
By Fred J. Eckert
F
58 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022
MARYLAND Washington, D.C Fredericksburg
Richmond
VIGINIA
Fredericksburg is located halfway between Washington, D.C., and Richmond.
PETER HERMES FURIAN/SHUTTERSTOCK
ew self-proclaimed “historic” towns around the country actually offer up much or even any truly significant history. Mostly, they’re about obscure local history. But little Fredericksburg, Virginia, is genuinely historic. When it comes to American history, nowhere else in small-town America will you find anything that compares. A lot of other places may boast that “George Washington Slept Here,” but a T-shirt you can find for sale in Fredericksburg is inscribed with a message that pretty well sums up the town’s special edge: “George Washington Slept Many Places, But He Lived in Fredericksburg.” “If you like American history, you’ve come to the right town,” Bill Beck told me as we stood chatting on the sidewalk in front of his store, “Beck’s Antiques & Books,” on Caroline Street. “Most Americans don’t realize it, but George
Washington grew up right over there.” Beck gestured toward the nearby Rappahannock River, the narrow river that young George Washington crossed to come to town from Ferry Farm, the home and farm where he spent much of his early life. Beck loves Fredericksburg and knows it well. He’s a former mayor of the town. “Just up the street here, where Weedon’s Tavern once stood, that’s where, in 1777 a committee of Virginians, notably Thomas Jefferson and George Mason, drafted the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom,” he said. “That’s the work that established the American principle of religious liberty and eventually evolved into our First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion. “Ferry Farm was where George Washington spent his formative years. He lived there from age 6 to 16. This is where his roots are. This is a place he always enjoyed coming home to—and he did so often.”
