George Washington's last birthday, February 22, 1799, was a happy one.  There was a family wedding at Mount Vernon on that date, uniting his foster daughter, Eleanor (Nelly) Parke Custis, and his sister Betty's son, Major Lawrence Lewis.  The delighted Washington, noted for buying land, rather than giving it away, made the newlyweds a present of a portion of his beloved Mount Vernon estate.  He said the 2,000 acres would be a "most beautiful site for a gentleman's seat."

The architect, Dr. William Thronton, who did the first work on the U.S. Capitol, designed a stately Georgian mansion for the crest of the highest hill on the Lewises' property.  While their house was being built they lived at Mount Vernon, comforting the grief-stricken Martha Washington who was widowed on December 14, 1799.  In 1802, at Martha’s death, the Lewises and their two young children moved into the completed wing areas of Woodlawn.  The center portion wasn't finished until 1805.

Visiting Woodlawn gives you a sense of the deep grief Nelly felt at the death of the only father she ever knew.  She placed his bust on a pedestal as high as Washington's own considerable height.  A swath was cut through the trees so that she could see Mount Vernon, her girlhood home, from Woodlawn's river entrance.

In the music room you see Nelly's music on a pianoforte similar to one she once played. Her husband was more interested in hunting than harmonics.  He imported thoroughbred horses and the first merino sheep in North America.  When Lawrence Lewis died in 1839, his widow moved to Clarke County to live with her son and his family at Audley Plantation.

The Garden Club of Virginia has re-created the formal gardens.  An unexpected addition to this 19th-century plantation is the 20th-century Usonian Pope-Leighey House.  It is the second home of this type designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, built of cypress and not of concrete like his later models.