The Fort Loudoun Site is a half-acre tract within the Winchester Historic District where a young Colonel George Washington designed and constructed a fort while serving as commander of the Virginia Regiment in 1758. Fort Loudoun operated as a command center and primary supply depot for Washington and the Virginia troops during the French and Indian (also known as the Seven Years’) War. It was built as the first and most prominent of a string of military forts and outposts erected to protect Virginia’s back-country settlers from raids made by the French and their Native American allies, beginning as early as 1754. While never directly attacked, troops at Fort Loudoun were garrisoned there at least until the end of open hostilities in 1763. They also joined British forces during military campaigns between 1758 and 1760. Since its day, residential and road construction has disturbed much of the Fort Loudoun site over the centuries, although limited and intensive archaeological excavations of the site have revealed well-preserved features related to the fort and the activities of the soldiers there. The half-acre portion of the site listed in the registers and bounded by a private lot in Winchester retains a high level of integrity and contains archaeology revealing a substantial section of one of the fort’s defensive bastions, a well, and a barracks.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia