Abingdon (plantation)
| Abingdon | |
|---|---|
Reconstructed Abingdon house foundation (2014)
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| Alternative names | Abingdon Plantation Alexander-Custis Plantation |
| General information | |
| Type | Private residence |
| Architectural style | Georgian |
| Location | Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Arlington County, Virginia |
| Country | United States |
| Coordinates | 38°51′05″N 77°02′40″W / 38.851371°N 77.04443938°WCoordinates: 38°51′05″N 77°02′40″W / 38.851371°N 77.04443938°W |
| Completed | by 1746 (first building) |
| Destroyed | 1930 |
| Owner | Gerard Alexander I Robert Alexander John Parke Custis Dr. David Stuart Walter Alexander General Alexander Hunter Alexander Hunter (2nd) Alfred Richards Brick Company New Washington Brick Company Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad United States government Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority |
Abingdon (also known as the Alexander-Custis Plantation) was an 18th- and 19th-century plantation that the prominent Alexander, Custis, Stuart, and Hunter families owned. The plantation's site is now located in Arlington County in the U.S. state of Virginia.
Abingdon is known as the birthplace of Eleanor "Nelly" Parke Custis Lewis (March 31, 1779 – July 15, 1852), a granddaughter of Martha Washington and a step-granddaughter of United States President George Washington. Abingdon may also have been home to the progenitor of all weeping willows (Salix babylonica) in the United States.Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, which occupies part of Abingdon's grounds, contains indoor and outdoor displays that commemorate the plantation's history.
The land that contains Abingdon was originally part of a larger holding granted in 1669 by letters patent to shipmaster Robert Howson for headrights for settlers that he had brought to the Colony of Virginia. Howson soon sold the patent to John Alexander for 6,000 pounds of tobacco.
Alexander was a descendent of the MacDonald clan of Scotland and was a son of the Earl of Stirling. He immigrated to Virginia around 1653, settled in Stafford County and became a planter, surveyor and captain of the Stafford County militia. When Alexander purchased the Howson patent, the patent covered an 8,000-acre (3,200 ha) site (believed at the time of sale to contain only 6,000 acres (2,400 ha)) on the southwestern side of the Potomac River. The site was about 2 miles (3.2 km) wide and extended along the Potomac from Hunting Creek (the southern boundary of the present City of Alexandria) to the present northern boundary of Arlington National Cemetery.
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Wikipedia