Commemoration at the Birthplace

These historic and modern photographs show the process of creating a memorial to George Washington. In the late 1920s, a group of women formed the Wakefield National Memorial Association to commemorate the landscape of George Washington's birthplace.

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Birthplace Monument, 1930 Relocation & Today

Left image
Lowering the monument in 1930
Credit: NPS image

Right image
Monument at the entrance of the park today
Credit: NPS / Stephen Girimont

In 1896, the Birthplace Monument was constructed by the War Department at the believed site of Washington's birth. The monument stood at that site for more than 30 years. However, the monument did not fit into the Wakefield National Memorial Association's commemorative plans in the 1930s. The Association planned to build several structures on the landscape, including a Memorial House which they felt more befit the birthplace of the nation's first president. Since the group wanted to build the Memorial House where the Birthplace Monument then stood, they asked Congress for funds to move the monument to a new location. Congress granted the request and in 1930, plans were made to move the monument.

Moving the monument was a challenge given the complexity of the move and the remote location of the birthplace. An enormous wooden derrick was built, and workers used muscle power to lower the monument onto a series of greased logs that rolled it to its new site, 400 yards away. Once at the new location, the derrick was used once again to raise the monument where it now stands today at the entrance of the park.

View more photo galleries of the historic location and the relocation process.

Memorial House Museum, Brickmaking & Today's Building

Left image
1930s Kiln and bricks
Credit: NPS image

Right image
Memorial House Museum today
Credit: NPS / Stephen Girimont

After the monument was moved, the Wakefield National Memorial Association next set their sights on constructing the Memorial House. National Park Service Director Horace Albright suggested that the group use John D. Rockefeller’s representative, Kenneth Chorley, the builder of Colonial Williamsburg, to assist with the project. Chorley sent brick makers to the site on July 8, 1930, where they erected a kiln to fire bricks above a sizable clay deposit to the west of the Memorial House construction site. The crew had made enough bricks by November 20, 1930 to allow workers to begin the building. Construction of the Memorial House was completed in the summer of 1931.

View the kiln photo gallery. 

Colonial Revival Kitchen, 1930 Construction & Today

Left image
1930 Construction of the Colonial Revival Kitchen
Credit: NPS image

Right image
Today's Colonial Revival Kitchen
Credit: NPS / Stephen Girimont

As the Wakefield National Memorial Association began the design of the commemorative landscape, the National Park Service suggested that NPS engineer O.G. Taylor act as the surveyor and excavator for the project, to which the Association agreed. During his preparatory excavations, Taylor discovered the remnants of a small chimney. The Association incorporated this new discovery into their overall plans by building a reproduction of a colonial kitchen at that location.

Washington Family Burial Ground, 1930 Design & Today

Left image
Block wall overgrown with vegetation
Credit: NPS image

Right image
Interior of today's Washington Family Burial Ground
Credit: NPS / Stephen Girimont

In 1906, the Colonial Dames had constructed a thirty-six-foot square concrete block wall around the Washington family burial vault. However, by 1930, the area was in disarray. The Wakefield National Memorial Association planned a different landscape than that of the Colonial Dames at the Washington Family Burial Ground. They removed the block wall between 1930 and 1931 and built a new wall with leftover bricks from the Memorial House project. Remains from the original family vault were placed in a sarcophagus like tomb in the center of the burial ground.

View more images of the Washington Family Burial Ground.