Figure 6 Replica of George Washington’s town house. (Courtesy, Office of Historic Alexandria; photo, Eric Kvalsvik.) Washington’s town house at 508 Cameron Street was built by 1769 and demolished in 1857. This replica was constructed on the same site in 1960. The Alexandria Gazette (June 7, 1851) described the original house as “a small frame house, the ascent to which is by a long narrow flight of steps. How simple the habits, how unostentatious the movements and the mansion of the deliverer of his country. . . . A stranger might pass and re-pass this house many times without taking any notice of it.” Although the house was often rented or lent to friends and family, Washington is thought to have spent some nights there in the early 1770s, and his letters give detailed orders for fencing the property, painting, and other repairs.
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