George Washington's Church

Located just a few miles from George Washington’s home, Mount Vernon, Pohick Church has been called the “Mother Church of Northern Virginia.” Pohick was established on the colony’s “Northern Neck” before 1724, and served as a place of worship for many prominent families in the area, including the Washingtons, Masons, and Fairfaxes, who were members of the Church of England. George Washington was among the vestrymen who supervised the construction of the grand brick structure, completed in 1774, that survives to this day. Virginia’s Religious Freedom Act of 1785 formally disestablished the Church of England—now known as the Episcopal Church—which encouraged a flourishing of religious denominations. During the American Civil War (1861-1865), souvenir-seeking Union forces occupied Pohick Church on several occasions. This decorative wooden fragment was carefully preserved by descendants of one such soldier, who cherished it as a memento of George Washington.