Pope-Leighey House & Woodlawn Historic Tour in Alexandria

Visit Pope-Leighey House, then Woodlawn, on a combined tour connecting residential architecture with the lives and communities that shaped these historic homes.

Itinerary

About Pope-Leighey House

During the 1930s, Frank Lloyd Wright set his formidable attention towards designing affordable middle-class residences. More than 100 of these modest homes, referred to as Usonian, thought to mean "the United States of North America," were constructed between 1936 and Wright's death in 1959, including the Pope-Leighey House (1940). Commissioned in 1939 by Loren Pope, a journalist in Falls Church, VA, the residence was sold to Robert and Marjorie Leighey in 1946. The house was in the path of an expansion of Highway 66, so in an effort to preserve the building, Mrs. Leighey gave the property to the National Trust, which relocated it to nearby Woodlawn and granted her lifetime tenancy. Mrs. Leighey occupied the house at Woodlawn until her death in 1983. Unusually, the house required a second move due to the instability of the clay soil, and was relocated about 30 feet up the hill in 1995-96.

Second stop: Woodlawn- a gift from George Washington to his nephew and step granddaughter- designed in 1805 by the first architect of the Capitol, William Thornton. Today, a dynamic re-birth is happening here with an expanded, inclusive narrative focused on telling the fullest story of its people, and showcasing the power of local craft and local agriculture.

Woodlawn's history is complex and transformative- once a plantation home, it became, under Quaker ownership on the eve of the Civil War, a successful farming colony of freedmen, immigrants and abolitionists working and living together. The site also boasts a working farm powered by Arcadia Food, part of a new vision that reflects back on Woodlawn's agrarian heritage.

Woodlawn was the first site operated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Important details

• Bring ID if using an active military ticket.
• Bring your National Trust for Historic Preservation membership card and ID if using a member ticket.
• Arrive 15 minutes early. Late arrivals may not be accommodated.