The mission of George Washington’s Fredericksburg Foundation is to enhance the public understanding and appreciation of the lives, values, and legacies of George Washington, Fielding and Betty Washington Lewis, and their families.

In 1922, an energetic and far-sighted group of people led by Mrs. Vivian Minor Fleming, rallied the resources to purchase Kenmore, the Fredericksburg house built in 1775 by George Washington’s sister Betty and her husband, Colonel Fielding Lewis. Launching the campaign to save Kenmore, then Vice President Calvin Coolidge said, “It ought to be preserved for its own sake. It must be preserved for patriotic America.”

In 1996 the Kenmore Association as it was then known, saved another Washington landmark, Ferry Farm, from commercial development. This Stafford County farm where young George grew to manhood is a pastoral piece of property along the Rappahannock River where wildlife abounds and where the earth yields up an abundance of archaeological evidence of its previous residents. At this point in its history, the Association changed its name to George Washington’s Fredericksburg Foundation to reflect its growing stewardship. Also during this time, the Foundation acquired Augustine Washington’s ironworks at Accokeek Furnace in Stafford County.

Kenmore was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970.