Historic Dumfries Museum

Historic Dumfries Virginia, Inc. is a private, non-profit membership organization that operates the Weems-Botts Museum. The company organizes history-themed events on a yearly basis, invites and hosts guest speakers, manages historical archives and a library, and publishes a bi-monthly newsletter.

If you are a student or researcher who wants to learn more about the topics the Weems-Botts Museum is dedicated to, then you can visit to continue your research. You can hire an experienced writer from the essay writing site and ask him “write my research paper”. It’s a great way to get professional help and succeed in your research.

The Ordinary is an 18th-century two-story mansion with a façade of five bays. The front wall of the building is laid in an all-header bond using rusticated stone quoins at the corners. There is also a fine rusticated stone doorway that welcomes every visitor. Allegedly, the Ordinary is the only all-header bond construction left in Virginia.

The flat stone arches spanning the window openings feature superimposed keystones. The basement wall is made of a randomly ordered ashlar under a water table molded from stone. The building is crowned by an entirely molded wood cornice with modillions and a hipped roof with four interior end chimneys.

The date of construction and the builder of the Ordinary are both unknown. Some experts say that it was built around 1765 by James Wren. One of Wren’s most famous works, the Christ Church in Alexandria, has many similar stylistic elements to the Ordinary. On the other hand, the Ordinary could be connected to William Buckland and Annapolis houses.

Even during colonial times, the building was known as the Williams Ordinary. Over the years, it was known under the names Love’s Tavern, the Stage Coach Inn, and so on. It was also used as Confederate Headquarters during the blockade of D.C. along the Potomac River which happened during the Civil War. Nowadays, it is being restored and serves as a private residence.