This was our second full day in Fredericksburg. We visited a bunch of historic sites. It is funny that you never think or hear much about Fredericksburg except for the Civil War battle fought here. We learned today that the town was a thriving center of commerce back in colonial times because the Rappahannock River was navigable from the ocean and it was a very busy inland port city. Lots of wealth here from traders as well as the tobacco plantations. Another thing is that this was George Washington's boyhood home. Never knew that. He grew up on the east side of the river at a place called Ferry Farm. Of course he left town to do great things, but his family remained.

Tourism is a big business here. The places we visited today had very good interpretive programs. We saw the Rising Sun Tavern, Mary Washington House, Historic Kenmore and Chatham manor. She was George Washington's mother. Her daughter Betty lived just a couple blacks away at Kenmore. Of course back in those days, there weren't a lot of houses around. When Mary went to visit her daughter she didn't use the Uber horse service. Parking wasn't a problem back then so she rode her own horse over.

Today's photo is of the Mary Washington House. It is interesting because it is the actual house. The part that existed at the time only included the two gables next to the corner. Things have a tendency to not stay static for too long and subsequent owners enlarged the building. We are seeing that architectural archaeology is a big part of restoring these structures.