On a quiet street in Fredericksburg, Virginia, is a 51.5-foot-tall obelisk dedicated to Mary Ball Washington, the mother of General and First President George Washington. She is laid to rest on this property.
Originally buried at Kenmore, the home of Fielding and Betty (Washington) Lewis, and marked by a memorial stone ordered by George Washington, her grave was moved when the property sold.
Fielding and Betty Lewis moved her grave to the property where the monument now stands. It is unmarked.
Souvenir hunters nearly destroyed the original stone, and a movement began as early as 1826 to erect a more elaborate monument. Not until the 1890s, however, did two groups—the Mary Washington Monument Association of Fredericksburg and the National Mary Washington Memorial Association—achieve success.
President Grover Cleveland dedicated the completed monument on May 10, 1894.
The monument to Martha Washington is the first memorial funded by women in the United States in honor of a woman. It is located within the Washington Avenue Historic District.
For more information on all the Washington family sites in Fredericksburg, click here.
