[5][6][7] George Washington first visited the "Indian Old Fields" (as the area was called) as a teenager and conversed with Isaac Van Meter there in 1747-48 while he was surveying Lord Fairfax's land grant.

)[9] Hostilities (1750s) In 1756, at the outset of the French and Indian War, a large new fort and its supporting structures were erected on Isaac Van Meter's property by Captain Thomas Waggener under orders from now Colonel George Washington.

[2] In 1757, working unprotected in his fields, Isaac Van Meter was attacked, scalped, and killed by Indians of the Delaware and Shawnee tribes.

[10] The drawing shows blockhouses at the corners of the fort, suggesting that the structure was either remodeled or totally rebuilt sometime after the end of the War.

[2] When Washington was in the region for the last time — he visited Abraham Hite at Old Fields on 28–29 September 1784 — he observed that the Fort Pleasant blockhouse was still standing.

The impressive residence is a massive double-chimney Federal-style building constructed of clay bricks fabricated on the Fort Pleasant farm.

A portion of the old fort apparently survived Garrett Van Meter's renovations and the construction of the great house by his son.