Known affectionately as "Little Washington," this is the village George Washington is said to have surveyed and laid out as a young man in 1749 — the first of the many American towns to bear his name. Tucked against the foothills of the Blue Ridge in Rappahannock County, it is a place of remarkable concentration: a five-by-two-block grid of preserved 18th- and 19th-century buildings that has become one of the most celebrated small destinations in the country, anchored by a renowned country inn and a thriving community of artists, makers, and growers.

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For those who venture an hour beyond Middleburg, Washington rewards with a rarer kind of country living — historic village homes, mountain-view farms, and estates set among some of Virginia's most protected and pastoral landscapes. It is a destination unto itself, and a way of life for the fortunate few who call it home.