NPS

Hampton National Historic Site

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Before the Revolution, Charles Ridgely grew his fortune making iron and exporting it to Europe for finished goods. His land had all the essential elements for this business, nearby Baltimore had the port, he purchased his own merchant fleet, and even received tax incentives from the British government. He diversified into other businesses, growing corn, fruit, and bottling casks of port to sell in the city. And he didn’t pay most of his workers.

When the war began, Ridgely sold iron and supplies to the Americans. His craftsmen were skilled, and he was likely the largest enterprise in the country at the time. For cheap, he purchased the lands confiscated from Loyalists. But he didn’t adhere to the ideals of the American Revolution. In fact, he built the largest, most purely British Georgian mansion above, while the country was just finishing fighting its War of Independence from the British King George.

His nephew inherited the home in 1790 and served in Congress and as Maryland Governor, arguing for peace with Britain. By the 1820s, Hampton was 25,000 acres and included cattle, horse racing and marble quarries. For six generations, the Ridgely family held on to this property and protected the family wealth. The work was done by over 300 slaves at any one time, and the plantation was known to be one of the state’s largest and hardest driving plantation, where other slaves feared to be sold as punishment.

The ranger was unable to point to any contributions made to society by the Ridgely family over 200 years, but she did have much evidence that they enjoyed an aristocratic life and drank copiously. They had a huge ice cave dug into the hill, filled in winter, so they could enjoy ice cream during the summer. (They lived in their Baltimore house during the winter). The four main rooms have been marvelously restored to different time periods, Colonial, the Governor (photo), pre Civil War and post Civil War, each with elaborate displays that would make European nobility blush. The hall and rooms are filled with large portraits of the vain slaveholders, none of whom made the choice to see their slaves as equally human.

The overseers house, farm buildings and some slave quarters have been restored as well, and all can be seen from the front step, far down the hill. The park service has done admirable research on the life of the slaves, and I learned how generations of young Ridgely children were taught to maintain the system of control. Slavery impacts every aspect of humanity, and the stories here are told with some meticulous details to evoke hundreds of years of cruelty. The house was donated to the park service by a wealthy foundation in part to preserve the fine art collection.

Thomas Stone National Historic Site

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The site is open in limited seasons, on limited days of the week, for limited hours, with limited staff, with limited tours. Despite the sign on the visitor center door saying that someone should be there and that there was another tour scheduled, the place was locked and nobody showed up. The house is off limits without a tour, so, the placard above is all I have. Thomas Stone voted for and signed the Declaration of Independence. He typically owned around two dozen slaves, and his Uncle was a slave trader who owned the ship that brought Kunta Kinte to Maryland. After the death of Stone’s wife, he became ill in 1787 and declined to participate in the Constitutional Convention, dying shortly thereafter. His house burned in 1977, and the earliest photo for restoration was 1902. “Haber de venture” means ‘dwelling of the winds’.

Piscataway Park

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This park was founded to protect the view across the Potomac from Mount Vernon, so visitors there can see the Maryland shore as it appeared to George & Martha Washington. Now it is the site of a middle-class Colonial farm, an ecosystem farm, a demonstration farm, a marsh boardwalk, a sacred Native American burial ground, docks and a kayak launch. The park service leases the land to partners and co-manages it. The tobacco barn above and nearby buildings pre-date the USA, and there is actual tobacco drying inside. The crops are heirloom, and the animals are 18th century breeds. While beautiful and interesting, it appears most of the visitors are local hikers, fishermen, school groups and dog walkers. Iridescent barn swallows dart all around the boardwalk. The views are lovelier close up.

George Washington Birthplace National Monument

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George’s great grandfather owned 10,000 acres of Virginia tidewater. The three places Washington lived before he became a national figure were all managed by private foundations, but now the park service runs his birthplace where he lived until he was 3 or 4. There’s a small site in town that covers his boyhood. And then there’s the very popular Mount Vernon site, with living history and the beautiful original home restored to how it looked when George & Martha lived there. The tours at Mt Vernon are in depth and excellent, but this site is quiet and peaceful.

Both George & Martha inherited slaves before their marriage, and many of them had families together at Mount Vernon. The slaves they owned when they died (mostly George’s) were freed around 1800, but Martha’s slaves reverted to a male heir and wound up at Arlington House, where they worked for Robert E. Lee, until freed by that heir’s will in 1862. If only George could have used his office to free all the slaves, he could have saved Martha’s slaves from broken families and generations of more misery and also averted Civil War. One descendent of Martha’s slaves nevertheless saved important artifacts of George Washington’s life when the Union took Arlington House.

George’s birth site doesn’t get as many visitors as Mount Vernon upriver, but it is beautiful and educational. The old park film is still good, and the hiking includes a lovely 1 mile nature trail near the shore. The buildings are from the wrong era, so I skipped the inside tour. The obelisk above was moved to the entrance at a time when they realized that they didn’t know exactly where George was born on the site, but the park service has now found the foundation of the house that was here at the time of his birth. They’re still deciding how to present or restore it, but in the meantime enjoy viewing the fields, farm animals and the Potomac.

The White House

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[Update, due to the recent tragic demolition of the above Jackie Kennedy garden, the colonnade on the right and the East Wing, tours have been suspended until sometime in 2026 or later.]

I took the tour! After standing outside the fence last year, I finally got organized and made a reservation. You need to make reservations through your Congressperson—even if you didn’t vote for them—to request a date within 3 weeks to 3 months in advance. Tours are currently given Tuesday through Saturday mornings, and they’re very popular. I requested any date in April, and they said no, the first available was in May. They confirm 2-3 weeks before. So, I changed my schedule, and a few months later, I’m walking through the East Portico, through the historic red, green, blue and other historic rooms. The best experience is to download the WHExperience App from the Historical Society and get all the details on your phone. The staff inside will answer questions and reveal a few fascinating stories, but they’re also there to make sure people behave. It’s difficult to imagine a more historic site, since the residents literally make history. I enjoyed both the recent photographs and the historic portraits.

If you can’t get a reservation, you can peer through the fence on either the north or south sides—pedestrians are once again allowed to walk up to the fence to take a decent photo. There is also a visitor center (no reservations needed) near the East Gate with a movie, detailed model and exhibits. Oh, and my sister reminded me to always put the park site location in my posts—she’s in Real Estate and location is very important—, so, the White House is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, in Washington DC. Thanks!

Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument

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The house once belonged to the Treasury Secretary Gallatin, was burned by the British and was later named after Alva Belmont, a Vanderbilt divorcee, donor and leader of the women’s movement, who bought it to lobby Congress. The site today primarily recognizes the women’s movement leader Alice Paul (above), who founded the National Women’s Party before women had the right to vote. Finishing what began in Seneca Falls, Paul led the campaign in DC for women’s suffrage and for the Equal Rights Amendment. Here pressure was exerted for gender equality language in the UN Charter and the 1964 Civil Rights Act, among many similar efforts around the world.

The tour allows you to see the many portraits, sculptures and photos of the women’s movement and is very educational. I learned about Inez Milholland, an icon for the movement who inspired the superhero Wonder Woman, Marie Louise Bottineau Baldwin an indigenous woman who marched with the other leaders and later became a lawyer, and more about Ida B. Wells, who refused to march in the back of a parade and joined her state’s delegation from the side. Be sure to ask about segregation, as the topic is apparently only discussed upon request in our new political era.

I did not realize how many women were imprisoned or how many were badly beaten upon their arrest. The photo below shows Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, posing in a cell they once occupied. Over 200 suffragists were imprisoned for protesting in front of the White House, and Alice Paul led a hunger strike that was instrumental in pressuring President Wilson towards passing the 19th Amendment. I recommend the HBO film Iron Jawed Angels to learn about these events. Read more about Women’s History park units.

Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site

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An advisor to half a dozen presidents, founder of schools, civics organizations and the archive above, Mary McLeod Bethune was a dynamo who devoted her life to advancing the lives of people who had been denied equal rights for centuries. Her home office in DC, the headquarters for the African American women’s movement, is just up the street from the White House, where she worked in FDR’s administration, as the first African American woman to lead a federal department. She later was the only African American woman to attend the founding of the UN in San Francisco. She worked with Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, WEB Du Bois, Maggie L Walker, Nannie Burroughs, and Carter Woodson, and she skillfully raised funds from John D. Rockefeller and many white elites at the Palmetto Club in Florida.

The house has recently reopened after some renovations, but the interior rooms and exhibits are still being reorganized. Given the extensive race and gender barriers, the home often had to put up visitors in the top floor, who were unwelcome at DC hotels. The upstairs office was full of busy staff, managing events, publishing articles, and coordinating activities nationally. Downstairs the parlor hosted guests and the conference room hosted important meetings and kept detailed records. The tour guide was exceptionally knowledgeable and provided the context needed to judge the scale of her contributions to our history. Guaranteed to learn here.

Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site

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While the house is undergoing necessary renovations, it’s appropriate that the sign in the window still displays what was going on during Black History Month this February, because Dr Woodson started that right here in 1926 (originally just a week). Recognizing the need to study and teach African American History correctly, Dr Woodson devoted his life to building the academic and social foundations to publish and teach. The only person of enslaved parents to earn a PhD in History and the second African American to earn a PhD at Harvard—after WEB Du Bois—, Dr Woodson was also Dean at Howard University. He mentored a great many scholars (Langston Hughes worked here briefly), including many African American women. He was good friends with Mary McLeod Bethune, who ran his historical foundation for 16 years. He wrote eight influential books, started two academic journals, and trained a generation of future historians, intellectuals, authors and Civil Rights activists. Today, Dr Woodson is remembered as the Father of African American History. The expanded home is expected to open later this year with a new visitor center.

They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.

Langston Hughes

Frederick Douglass National Historic Site

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[Update] On my third visit, the site was open after renovations, and the tour allows unique insights into his life. Through hard work, intellect and moral courage, Frederick Douglass became renowned author, public speaker, publisher, adviser to many presidents, US Marshal of DC, diplomat and civil rights leader. He purchased his home on one of the highest hills in our nation’s capital, with a grand view of the Washington Monument. The neighborhood is now historic, and the surrounding area is predominantly African American, some descended from the Civil War refugees who lived in camps near the city for protection. Douglass was cognizant of the lack of African American role models when he was young, so he consciously presented himself well, and gifts like his bust above were meant to inspire another generation of leaders.

Douglass taught himself to read, escaping slavery around age 20, with the help of a free black woman he then married, fleeing to New Bedford where he soon joined abolitionists and his story is published. Pursued by slave hunters, he flees to England, and returns when donors purchase his freedom. He publishes an influential newspaper that supports both abolition and women’s suffrage and several books. During the Civil War, he advises Lincoln and urges African Americans to join the army. After the war, he buys his beautiful home on Cedar Hill overlooking our nation’s capital and continues writing books, public speaking and advocating for human rights. But, perhaps to recall his roots and to inspire him, he did much of his writing in the rough outbuilding—called the Growlery—behind his house, pictured above. Among his many accomplishments, he is often remembered as one of America’s greatest orators.

“Power concedes nothing without a demand.
It never did, and it never will.”

Frederick Douglass

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

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This DC park is managed by Capital Parks East, which includes the long riverside park and 12 mile bike trail along the Anacostia. In summer, this is likely the prettiest DC park, when the water lilies are in bloom. Once a commercial enterprise, the community now volunteers to maintain this beautiful “oasis in the city”, and I saw a dozen folks knee deep in the mud digging around among the roots. Outside of the water lily ponds, there are wetlands accessible by boardwalk. I saw a Great Blue Heron, sandpipers and various warblers, and the water is also full of life.

That this park exists is a bit miraculous. The area was a failed tobacco plantation, a failed port, a failed reclamation project, a failed industrial zone, a failed housing development, a failed country club, a dump, and a Hooverville of WWI veterans who were removed by the Army after asking for their promised bonus, which failed.

The water lily business was the most successful, with species from all over the world. Civil War veteran WB Shaw and his daughter Helen Fowler ran it in the ‘20s and ‘30s. The wetlands are now seen as critical habitats that keep the river healthy. Freshwater mussels now clean what was once a terribly polluted river. African American community leaders like Rhuedine Davis and Walter McDowney recreated the gardens and taught kids to love nature’s beauty. We owe them all a great debt.