George Washington’s Childhood Home, Virginia

At Ferry Farm many of the childhood myths of George Washington are manifested for tourists. A structure known as the Surveyors Shed reminds visitors that it was here that Washington learned surveying, which became his trade (the structure came from a later farmstead). The fable of Washington cutting down the cherry tree is set here too, and for years there was a plaque in front of a stump (even though the story was known to have been made up by a writer, Mason Locke Weems). The landscape of myth at Ferry Farm is giving way to scientific archeology now. In 2008, the original Washington house site was discovered, and a reconstruction at that location was built. The reconstructed house is designed to structurally float above the ground, so as not to disturb the earth beneath it.