The town of Washington, Virginia, is a historic village located in the eastern foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains near Shenandoah National Park. The entire town is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district, Washington Historic District. It is the county seat of Rappahannock County, Virginia.
The town was established by an act of the Virginia General Assembly in 1796 and as the county seat of Rappahannock County, Virginia, in 1833. The town was incorporated in 1894 and was rechartered by the Virginia General Assembly in 1985. A large portion of the town was designated as the Washington Historic District on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and is considered to be the best preserved of county-seat communities in the Piedmont. The town is led by a 7-member elected Town Council composed of a mayor, a treasurer, and five other members, all of whom serve 4-year terms. The internationally recognized Inn at Little Washington is located in the town. The town combines a mixture of open spaces, residences, village commerce, tourism facilities, historic buildings, cultural offerings, and local government activities. Its population was 135 people in the 2010 census and was estimated to be 127 people in 2019. The area of the town is .
History
The first recorded official document relating to the land that became the town of Washington was a land grant in the year 1735 from King George II of Great Britain to Thomas, James, and Elizabeth Kennerly. The three siblings received 1,750 acres of land located "between the mountains and the fork of the Rushy River," in what was then Orange County, for importing six people into the colony of Virginia, payment of seven pounds five shillings of "good and lawful money," and an annual fee of one shilling for every fifty acres of land. At this time there were virtually no Native Americans in the area and the way was open to English settlement of the Piedmont region of Virginia.
In 1745, the Kennerlys divided their land into three parts. Thomas received the central part, adjacent to and south of the Rush River and containing the land that would become the town of Washington. Thomas sold his land to Henry Gambill in 1753 and moved to South Carolina. Gambill divided the land: in 1754 he sold the western part, which contained what became the western portion of the town of Washington, to John Minor; in 1761 he gave the eastern part, which contained what became the northeastern portion of the town, to his son William Gambill. The border between these two parts would become part of the original road to Chester Gap and, later, Gay Street when the town of Washington was established.
These two parts were bought and sold multiple times during the next 30 years. However, four important individuals acquired the land in the 1790s. In 1791 William Porter was given 247 acres of the western land, and in 1795 George Calvert purchased 230 acres of the adjacent eastern land. During 1792–1795, Porter sold 2 acres to James Wheeler, 2 acres to James Jett Jr., and 6 acres to George Calvert, all of which were located on land that became the town of Washington. Only a few buildings were mentioned in these deeds; these included Wheeler's storehouse, Jett's store, and a schoolhouse, located along the road to Chesters Gap. The rest of the land was apparently only farmland owned by Porter and by Calvert.
On 1 November 1796, George Calvert, James Jett Jr., and James Wheeler petitioned the Virginia General Assembly to "establish a town by the name of Washington on twenty five acres of land of your said petitioners". The General Assembly responded by passing an act on 14 December 1796 establishing thirteen new towns in Virginia, one of which was the town of Washington. One year later, Calvert, Jett, Wheeler, and William Porter sent a second petition to the General Assembly of Virginia, asking that part of Porter's land be added to the town. A plan of the proposed streets and lots of the town was attached to the petition; four of the six streets were named after the four petitioners. On 25 December 1797, the General Assembly approved this request. The local legend that George Washington surveyed and laid out the town in 1749 is believed to have been created from fictitious documents in 1932.