[4] On the roof are five chimneys, one at each corner and one in the back ell with a slightly flared edge of corbels at the top, and a recessed panel in the center face.

[4] The main entrance is centered with a single transom and has a Greek Revival feature of a wide trim piece over the doorway.

[4] The residence's west elevation is divided into two sections with the front portion of the house and the rear ell.

[4] The rear ell is slightly set back from the facade and has a kitchen porch on the first floor with wooden posts.

[4] From documentation, it appears to have been a settlers fort, although militia were stationed there at times during the course of the French and Indian War.

[4][5] Major Robert Lockhart, her grandfather, devised Ridgedale and 700 acres (2.8 km2) to Sarah, her brother, and sister in 1817.

[4][5][6] The couple moved to the Ridgedale and constructed the single pen log cabin around 1832 where they lived until the spacious Greek Revival main house was completed.

[3][4][5][6] George W. Washington's agricultural practices included raising beef cattle, sheep, and pigs.

[4] He sold cured and fresh pork, along with corn, wool, and vegetables for farm income.

[8] One of his subdivisions is the "Blacks Hill" neighborhood of Romney, adjacent to the Washington Place homestead.

[4] Early in Summer 1861, Confederate General Turner Ashby and his command occupied a position on the South Branch Potomac River "upon the estate of Col. George Washington.

"[10] His brother, Captain Richard Ashby, was carried on a litter to the Washington home at Ridgedale after he was mortally wounded at the Battle of Kelley's Island on June 28, 1861.

[4][5][9][11] Another account places Captain Ashby's mortal wounding by a bayonet thrust at a battle with Union forces at Dans Run along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad on June 26, 1861.

[4][5] After the war, he was reinterred with his brother Turner Ashby at Stonewall Cemetery in Winchester, Virginia, in 1866.

[3] Washington's sons, Edward and John, both joined the Hampshire Guards before the American Civil War began, and left for Harpers Ferry in May 1861.

[6][12] His son Edward was wounded in the Battle of Antietam and acted as a courier for Generals Stonewall Jackson and Jubal Anderson Early and later took part in the capture of General George Crook and Benjamin Franklin Kelley when he acted as a guide for the McNeill's Rangers.

[3] Two of Edward's sisters, Rebecca and Etta, were sent from Hampshire County to carry a message to General Jackson, then stationed near Winchester, that the Union forces were in possession of Romney.

[6] Washington states that he and his family had not been able to attend the Springfield Methodist Church while it was in the process of being repaired after the American Civil War.

[4] The farm continued in son Robert's hands when he purchased it in January 1879 from the other heirs and devisees of his father.

[3][4] Approximately 500 acres (2.0 km2) of the farm were sold in 1936 by Washington's heirs to the Brinker brothers of Cumberland, Maryland.

[4] The South Branch Valley Railroad continues to operate on the old Baltimore and Ohio line near Washington Bottom Farm.

Brothers Fred, George, and Joseph Brinker had owned a machinery dealership in Cumberland.

[4] In 1943, Fred's son Charles W. and wife Dorothy and two children moved from Baltimore, Maryland, to Springfield, West Virginia, to help operate the dairy farm.

[4] Charles and Dorothy Brinker lived at the farm for fifty years and operated the dairy with the help of their four children: Fred, Maryann, Robert, and Terry.

[4] With their sons, Matthew and Michael, the farm was expanded in fall 2001, and the dairy was returned to operation.

[4] A milking parlor was installed in the original horse barn to handle 400 head of Holstein cattle.

[4] Since the Shaw's purchased the farm, Ridgedale has undergone an extensive restoration project partially funded from both the West Virginia Division of Culture and History and the United States Department of the Interior through the National Park Service.