Complete information about visiting the Booker T. Washington National Monument is now on National Park Planner!
The Booker T. Washington National Monument in Hardy, Virginia, preserves the location of Booker T. Washington’s birth place, the James Burroughs farm. Washington was born into slavery in 1856 and lived on the farm until the end of the Civil War. Washington would go on to be one of the most famous black men of his time. He is most noted for being the first principal of the newly founded Normal School for Colored Teachers at Tuskegee, Alabama, a school that he built into the Tuskegee Institute, one of the nation’s premiere black colleges.
Don’t expect to learn much about Washington at the park, for like the George Washington and Abraham Lincoln birthplace monuments, the focus is more on Washington’s childhood and what it was like in general to be a slave on a small farm in the mid-1800s. Aside from a Visitor Center where you can watch a biographical film about Washington and visit a small museum, the park mainly consists of the farm. Nothing remains from Washington’s days, but historically accurate reproductions of typical farm buildings of the time, along with live farm animals, bring his birth place to life. A short trail leads around the farm, plus there is a longer trail for those who want to get some exercise.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON DOCUMENTARY
DIRECTIONS AND CONTACT INFORMATION
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Last updated on November 14, 2024
