Visit to Little Washington, Virginia, USA
My eldest son Baljit gave me a surprise by taking me to visit this historic landmark fondly known as Little Washington, a small village in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia with superb dining and lodging establishments, shops and businesses win one award after another for excellence. It is considered by those who were born here, and those who settled later, a paradise in which to live, work and play.
This town still has the same five-block by two-block grid it did when George Washington surveyed and laid it out over 250 years ago.
The Town of Washington is a National Historic Landmark and since the 1800s has been referred to as Little Washington to distinguish it from big Washington, DC., less than 70 miles away. You will find Little Washington is little, more like an English village than a town, with a population of less than 150 persons. In July 1749, a 17-year old George Washington noted in his journal, “In the Blue Ridge Mountains . . . I laid off a town.” The young surveyor, assisted by two chain men, laid out the town of Washington in the same five-block by two-block grid that exists today. The town was officially established by the Virginia Assembly in 1796. There are now 28 Washingtons in the United States, but this is “The First Washington of All.”
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The Inn at Little Washington
The Inn at Little Washington is the only Double Forbes Five Star, Double AAA Five Diamond property in the Washington metro area. The Inn’s eighteen bedrooms and suites are sumptuous hideaways created by Joyce Evans, a London stage and set designer, for whom The Inn has become a life’s work. Many of the furnishings were purchased in England, numbered and shipped to Virginia to be assembled on site like a giant jigsaw puzzle. The Inn offers a range of accommodations from well-appointed rooms to luxurious, two story suites many with balconies and garden views. The Inn’s dining rooms are pure fantasy – a wondrous cocoon of luxury. Rose-colored, silk lampshades float above each table creating a private, romantic world below. Chef/Proprietor Patrick O’Connell’s creations arrive as if served by invisible hands, course after course more dazzling than the last. From the award-winning 14,000 bottle wine cellar, which includes the finest offerings from Bordeaux, Burgundy, California and Virginia, the Sommelier plays matchmaker between you, your dinner and the wine.