Historical Highway Markers

Bushfield

JT-5

Three miles north of here is Bushfield, built by the Bushrod family in the mid-18th century on land acquired in the 1660s. This was the home of John Augustine Washington, brother of George Washington, and his wife, Hannah Bushrod Washington. George Washington visited on occasion. Bushrod Washington, born here in 1762, became a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1798 and later resided at Mount Vernon, which he inherited from his uncle. Bushfield, originally a tobacco plantation sustained by enslaved labor, was damaged by the British during the War of 1812. Prominent architect Waddy Butler Wood enlarged and renovated the house in the Colonial Revival style in 1916. The family cemetery remains.

Department of Historic Resources, 2025

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

John W. Wayland, The Washingtons and Their Homes (Staunton: McClure Printing Co., 1944) Bushfield NRHP nomination (2004). Gerard N. Magliocca, Washington’s Heir: The Life of Justice Bushrod Washington (Oxford University Press, 2022). “Bushrod Washington,” Digital Encyclopedia of George Washington, Mount Vernon (https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/bushrod-washington)