Historic Overview

Visit two iconic homes on one site.

Woodlawn

Woodlawn is located on lands first inhabited by the Doeg people. During the 1700s, it was part of George Washington’s Mount Vernon Plantation. Washington gifted 2,000 acres to his nephew and step-granddaughter Lawrence and Eleanor “Nelly” Lewis. Completed by 1805, the Federal-style mansion displays the power and prosperity of America’s first ruling class whose wealth was acquired by enslaving people of African descent. Anti-slavery Quakers purchased Woodlawn in the 1840s. Working with a well-established free Black community, they demonstrated that with agricultural reform and Black landownership, Virginia could be successfully cultivated without slavery.

Pope-Leighey House

The Pope-Leighey House, is a Frank Lloyd Wright designed Usonian home. Built for the Pope family in 1940, the house artfully blends into the landscape. Its innovative design and natural materials create a unique space. The home expresses Wright’s vision for beautiful, affordable housing. To save the house from demolition in 1965, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the home’s second owner, Marjorie Leighey, moved it to Woodlawn. It is the only Wright house open to the public in the Washington, D.C. area

Today at Woodlawn & Pope-Leighey House, we endeavor to understand how these two examples of American architecture and the dynamic history of all the people who lived here help define our present and shape our future.