We’re still sorting through photos from Morocco, so in the meantime, a quick post closer to home about some nearby history hidden in plain sight.

Within the parking garage at Reagan National Airport just north of Old Town there lies the ruins of a colonial-era plantation connected to George Washington. The ruins are completely enveloped by the parking garage structure, but you can tell where the plantation ruins are as you’re driving by on the parkway by the looking for the trees that appear to grow out of the parking garage roof.

After seeing this for years, and as consummate history dorks, we checked it out.

Abingdon Plantation ruins’ green space within the garage from in a satellite view on Google Maps:

There are a few signs in the Reagan National Airport parking garage leading to the ruins of Abingdon plantation. However, considering that most people parking there need to catch a flight and don’t have time to wander around to see the landmark, we’re no sure how often the spot actually gets visitors.

However, since National Airport is a short bike ride away for us, we rode there on the way to a longer ride up the Capital Crescent Trail to Bethesda for lunch. There’s actually biking infrastructure involving a few paths, a tunnel, and the parking garage that connects National Airport to the Mt. Vernon bike trail next to the parkway. (We have a friend around the corner who used to tow one of his kids in a Burley and bike from Old Town to the National Airport terminal for lunch at Legal Seafoods, which is located outside security. Go figure.)

The first helpful sign in the ground level of the garage near the bike entrance:

Directions to the plantation ruins in the breezeway between the terminal and parking garage:

Entrance sign to the plantation ruins; Parking Garage B is to the right:

The ruins are just up a path:

Remains of the main house with the airport terminal in the background:

Context of the ruins within the airport from signage at the site:

Remains of the kitchen building with Parking Garage C behind it:

Lots o’ signage at the top of the mound, overlooking both the ruins and the terminal:

Layout of the ruins:

Pretty well done historical markers providing the history of the place:

Instead of trying to read the signs, here’s an easier approach – this article on Atlas Obscura (which is an absolutely phenomenal site, btw):

“Abingdon was built in 1695 by the Alexander family, whose name was later conveyed to the nearby port town that we know today as Alexandria. Years later, George Washington’s adopted stepson, John, purchased the house so that he could live closer to the Washingtons’ home at Mount Vernon.

The property later reverted to the Alexander descendants, named Hunter, up until the Civil War when the confederate sympathizers fled south. Like the nearby Custis Lee Mansion (today, Arlington National Cemetery), Union troops took the property over and made camp on the lawns. After the war, the Hunters returned and successfully sued the government for rights to Abingdon. The lawyer, incidentally, was James Garfield, the future president of the United States.”

“The mansion itself burned down under suspicious circumstances in 1930. It was possibly an act of arson—the RF&P Railroad wanted to build on the site, and had previously “invited employees to strip the house” in order to “save demolition costs,” according to the Washington Post.

The ruins of Abingdon then sat abandoned for 11 years until Washington National Airport was built on landfill just north of the site. The airport’s continued expansion over the years again threatened Abingdon. In 1990, the Washington Metropolitan Airports Authority proposed bulldozing the fenced-off site to make way for a new parking garage. A vigorous preservation campaign played out in the city’s newspapers, and the ruins of Abingdon reopened in 1998 as a little park.”

The George Washington connection: Abingdon is the birthplace of Eleanor “Nelly” Parke Custis Lewis, Martha Washington’s granddaughter:

Mount Vernon is located just south of us, right down the aptly named George Washington Parkway. Visitors to Mount Vernon pass through the main entrance, beyond which – and out of sight – lie the mansion, out buildings, and gardens.

There’s a great 30-mile-loop bike ride from Old Town we frequently use that passes by Mount Vernon as the route continues to the turnaround point in Yacht Haven, so we encounter the estate’s entrance several times a month.

However, the ride also passes by a different portal into the estate that tourists have no idea even exists: the overlooked West Gate.

Mount Vernon’s West Gate is located at the opposite end of the estate and off the parkway itself. The Google Earth image below shows the main entrance to Mount Vernon on the right (at the base of the roundabout) and the West Gate indicated by the red dot on the left.

The gate lies along an unassuming stretch of the appropriately monikered Old Mount Vernon Road at its intersection with Old Mill Road:

The trajectory of Old Mill Road would continue straight through to the mansion, if not for the gate:

Beyond which lies Mount Vernon itself,

From the mountvernon.org site regarding traveling to Mount Vernon when George and Martha still occupied the estate: “Since the wharf on the Potomac River was reserved almost exclusively for deliveries, most of George Washington’s visitors arrived overland, on roads and paths that meandered past the fields and pastures surrounding the Mansion Farm House. Washington places a premium on first impressions. Visitors first sighted the Mansion from what is now known as the west gate. From there, they were afforded a “visto”, or view, of the west face of the Mansion, in front of which were cleared land and rolling hills for about seven-tenths of a mile.”

This 18th-century “visto” still exists, under the radar, and unknown to the tourists piling out of buses and filing into the main entrance:

Brief information on the West Gate right inside the barrier:

Definitely worth a look the next time you’re riding (or driving) near Mount Vernon: