Charles Washington was born on May 2, 1738, 6 years after his brother George, apparently at the Hunting Creek estate of his father, Augustine Washington. George and Charles spent their childhoods at Ferry Farm, opposite Fredericksburg VA, where the family had moved before Charles was a year old. There, on April 12, 1743, Augustine Washington died, leaving his oldest son Lawrence, (half-brother to George and Charles) heir to 2500 acres of land, part of which is now Mount Vernon. Lawrence Washington bought further lands and upon his death in 1752 was the owner of extensive holdings in the Shenandoah Valley. Although his will directed that all his lands pass to his youngest daughter Sarah and her heirs, she met an untimely death soon after Lawrence died, and by the terms of the will Lawrence’s holdings were then distributed to his brothers and half-brothers, with George receiving Mount Vernon and the balance divided between John Augustine, Samuel and Charles. John Augustine did not build on his property. Samuel built Harewood (also near Charles Town) and Charles later built Happy Retreat and founded Charles Town. By 1759, Charles Washington, being then of legal age, had assumed management of his various properties.

There is reason to believe that Charles' land in the valley may have been farmed as early as 1768. This date appears on the corner stone of the old kitchen at Happy Retreat, but has never been fully authenticated. The design and materials used in the kitchen and old brick smoke-house indicate them to be pre-Revolutionary, and a clay-chinked limestone quarters which stood until recent years behind the kitchen and smoke-house possibly predated the kitchen. An octagonal wooden powder-house similar to the one at Mount Vernon exists today and is supposed to have held powder stores during the Revolution. Later it was used as a school house for Charles and Mildred’s children.

On his visits from his home in Fredericksburg to this property prior to 1780, Charles Washington is said to have lived in a small house, since disintegrated, on Evitts Run, a small stream that flows along the base of the hill at Happy Retreat. From this temporary dwelling he could well have directed the work of brick-making for the residence he had planned, as there are claybeds along the Run. Stone and timber cutting could also have been supervised nearby, as the surrounding meadows are laced with limestone outcroppings, and the property included ample woodland.

In 1780 Charles and his wife Mildred moved from Fredericksburg to Happy Retreat where, by that time, he had constructed two one-story structures separated by a breezeway or portico. Until his death in 1799 Charles was very busy with land development and related matters. For example, in October, 1786, by act of the Virginia General Assembly, Charles Town was established on eighty acres of Charles Washington's land and he played an important role in planning the streets and construction activities of the new town. During this time Happy Retreat must have been the scene of many important conferences. One room in the West wing is thought to have been Charles Washington's study during these busy days.

General George Washington visited his brother at Happy Retreat several times during that period. On June 1, 1788, while he was interested in the building of a canal up the Potomac River, he inspected the work at Great Falls and Seneca Falls, dined at Leesburg, proceeded the following day to what is now Harper's Ferry, and on the 3rd arrived at Happy Retreat, where he dined and spent the night. Other visits to Charles, and to Samuel at Harewood, are recorded in the General's diaries for this period.

During the few months before his death in April, 1799, Charles transferred all his property to his son Samuel Washington and his heirs, which explains why there remained no property to be transferred in Charles' will. On the 23rd of February, 1800, (Berkeley County deed book 17, page 271) a bill of sale from Samuel Washington and wife Dorothea, "late of the County of Berkeley" to Thomas Hammond for forty-seven thousand forty-six and two thirds dollars, for two tracts of land. The first described is Happy Retreat, including the mansion house and 100 acres of land.

The property stayed in the Hammond family until 1837 when George Washington Hammond sold it to the Hon. Isaac A. Douglass for $13,000. Judge Douglass during this period was investing heavily in town properties, as evidenced by the number of deeds to his name. After his purchase of Happy Retreat, he completed the plans for the central section of the house and built a pleasing three story brick structure, connecting the two old Washington wings. He renamed the completed mansion "Mordington," after his ancestral estate in Scotland. Court order books for this period reveal that Judge Douglass was at this time judge of the circuit court, and anecdotes handed down in old Charles Town families depict "Mordington" as the scene of hospitality during the Douglass tenure.

The house passed through the hands of a number of different owners before it was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. William Gavin in the 1960’s. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The Gavins wish to sell the estate to Friends of Happy Retreat in order to preserve its important heritage as the home of the founder of Charles Town and to allow public use of the property.

* This history of Happy Retreat is based on an article in the 1947 Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society written by Charlotte Fairbairn.

The ca 1933 photographs of Happy Retreat used on this site are public access images from The Historic American Buildings Survey collection of the Library of Congress' American Memory project.

A recent historical architectural analysis of Happy Retreat completed by Matt Webster, Architectural Historian at Kenmore, the Fredericksburg estate established by Betty Washington, sister of George and Charles, indicates that the home’s development proceeded in three phases, as shown in the accompanying figure. Phase 1 construction consisted of the old stone kitchen and a portion of the west wing. Phase 2 consisted of the brick portion of the kitchen and the one-story east wing. Phase 3, which was undertaken in 1837 after the purchase of Happy Retreat by Judge Douglass, resulted in the addition of the 2nd stories to the two wings and completion of a large 2-1/2 story central portion connecting the two wings.