Garret Chambers

The sudden death of her beloved husband in 1799 devastated Martha Washington. Unwilling to remain in the bedchamber where her husband died, she retreated to a third-floor bedchamber that one visitor described as a "cramped attic space." Martha Washington resided here until her own death in May of 1802.

The four garret chambers were created by the remodeling work of the late 1750s. The rooms all changed slightly after the north and south extensions were completed in the 1770s. In their initial configuration, none of these rooms had a fireplace and were heated solely by radiant heat from the chimneys of fires burned in the rooms below.

A small fireplace was added to the northeast chamber in 1776. In 1797, Washington drew a plan indicating that he intended to install a stove in the southeast chamber, but this stove was instead added to its neighbor to the west, which Martha Washington occupied.