Lots in the newly established town of Bath were initially auctioned in 1777 and George Washington purchased two overlooking the warm springs on the southeast corner of Fairfax and Mercer streets. Lord Fairfax retained lots nearby. Steamboat inventor James Rumsey was contracted by Washington in 1784 to build a summer home and outbuildings on these lots as required by the ordinance establishing the town. After considerable delay and several recorded mishaps, Rumsey eventually built two structures later described by a Washington aide as “badly built and of bad timber.” There is no record of Washington ever inhabiting them. After Washington’s death in 1799, the lots and buildings were sold to his nephew Bushrod for $380.

In 1868, Judge William Dole, Abraham Lincoln’s Commissioner of Indian Affairs, built an elaborate summer cottage on the lots which in turn was razed in 1952 for the current structure.

Location: Corner of Fairfax and Mercer Streets. Berkeley Springs, WV 25411.