Fodor's Expert Review Woodlawn and Pope-Leighey House

Two iconic homes on one site are found just west of Mount Vernon. Woodlawn overlooks the Potomac River on lands first belonging to the Algonkian-speaking Doeg people, and then lands of George Washington’s larger Mount Vernon plantation. Finished in 1805, the Federal-style mansion was designed for Eleanor and Lawrence Lewis by William Thornton, the architect of the U.S. Capitol. It displays the power and prosperity of America’s first ruling class. Anti-slavery Quakers purchased and transformed Woodlawn in 1805. The Quakers and local free Black people demonstrated that with agricultural reforms and Black landownership, the South could be successfully cultivated without slavery.

Also on the grounds, Pope-Leighey House is a Frank Lloyd Wright Unison home. Designed for the Pope family in 1940, it artfully blends into the landscape. Its innovative design concepts and natural materials create a sense of space and grace. The home is an expression of Wright’s radical vision for beautiful, affordable, and more inclusive middle-class housing. To save it from demolition, the home was moved from Falls Church, Virginia, to Woodlawn in 1965 by its second owner, Marjorie Leighey. It's the only Wright house open to the public in Virginia.

Guides and exhibitions at both houses offer insight into the architectural details of both houses, as well as thoughtful narratives dedicated to telling the fullest story possible about all people associated with the property.