Open 9 am – 4 pm daily (including Saturday & Sunday).
The tour is approximately 60-90 minutes long, is self-guided and is delivered in the six languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin.
Coffee-House opens at 8 am daily serving excellent coffee and delicious food.
T: 1 (246) 228-5461
E: gwadmin@caribsurf.com

George Washington House was built around 1717 and is the oldest residence in the Garrison Historic Area, part of our UNESCO World Heritage Site. However, it was in November 1751 when Captain Richard Crofton, who had acquired the property five years earlier, offered the house as rental accommodation for Lawrence Washington and his younger brother George (later to become the first US President); both having arrived on the island a few days earlier. This would be the only international visit that George Washington would ever make in his life.

In 1789, the house became an Officer’s residence within the ‘new’ British Military Garrison and, for a time, the residence of Sir Charles Shipley. In 1906, after the withdrawal of British forces, it was sold back into private ownership.

This handsome Georgian-style building has undergone several changes, including the addition of a second floor sometime after 1810. As an 18th century rental property, the house would have been decently but not lavishly appointed. You can enter the house through the front door, to view the fully restored lower floor interior.

Other early structures include the windmill, for pumping water for domestic purposes including full baths in the nearby bathhouse. In order to protect the main house from heat, odors and fire, the kitchen was also housed in a separate building. The stables building was constructed in the early1830s, to replace an earlier wooden structure.

During his visit George would come to understand the true value of the West Indies to the British and would later use this knowledge against the British in the American War for Independence.

Additionally on the site you will have the opportunity to learn how the mysterious Garrison tunnels; built during the Garrison era (1789 – 1905) saved thousands of lives when there was large British Garrison of 3,000 men stationed in Barbados.

This network of tunnels is only accessible from George Washington House and are about 200 years old and form part of one of the largest networks of its kind in the World! Originally conceived as drainage, they were developed into an underground escape system, in the unlikely event of a successful invasion of the military base. One of the nine tunnels known to exist, this is the longest, at almost 1 km, stretching from one side of the former British Garrison to the other.