A Year of
Possibility
Two landmark homes. 126 acres. Nearly 18,000 visitors. One year of stewardship and impact at Woodlawn & Pope-Leighey House.
Woodlawn · 1805
Pope-Leighey House · 1941
A Year of
Possibility
Historic places become significant not simply because they survive, but because each generation finds new meaning in them. They connect us to the people who came before us, challenge us to learn from their experiences, and inspire us to imagine a better future. That is why we preserve them.
This year reminded us that stewardship is both inspiring and demanding. We persevered through one of the harshest winters in recent memory, with record snowfall, weeks of ice, and deeply frozen ground. Behind the scenes, our team worked tirelessly to protect Woodlawn and Pope-Leighey House, safeguard our collections, and keep these treasured places resilient in the face of increasingly unpredictable conditions.
This report celebrates a year of remarkable stewardship. It honors the dedication of our staff under Heather Johnson’s leadership as Interim Executive Director during the first half of the fiscal year and the momentum we built together following my arrival in January. Across every season, we strengthened preservation efforts, welcomed new audiences, forged new partnerships, and reimagined how these historic places can serve their communities.
We call 2025–2026 our Year of Possibility because it demonstrated what is achievable when preservation is grounded in resilience, curiosity, and collaboration.
As we begin our Year of Discovery, we will embrace experimentation, ask bold questions, and explore new ways for Woodlawn and Pope-Leighey House to connect history with the needs of the twenty-first century. Preservation is not simply about protecting remarkable places. It is about discovering, again and again, why they matter.
Ruki Neuhold-Ravikumar Executive Director
Ruki Neuhold-Ravikumar
Executive DirectorAt Woodlawn & Pope-Leighey House, we practice stewardship to inspire discovery of the past, deepen our understanding of the present, to shape a better future.
The year
at a glance
Contribution figures are the current forecast; the fiscal year closes in August.
invested this year in the fabric of both homes: the Woodlawn portico and roofline, the first phase of planning for the Pope-Leighey cypress conservation, and the conservation of the nineteenth-century Quaker Signature Quilt.
Caring for
what we hold
Preservation is daily work here. This year it ran from the roofline of Woodlawn to the cypress boards of Pope-Leighey House, and into the collection itself.
Preservation is an investment in the future. Throughout FY2026, Woodlawn and Pope-Leighey House invested nearly $49,000 in safeguarding the buildings, collections, and craftsmanship that make these sites nationally significant.
At Pope-Leighey House, we completed the first phase of planning for the conservation of Frank Lloyd Wright's iconic tidewater cypress exterior, establishing the research, specifications, and work plan that will guide future treatment. At Woodlawn, critical repairs to the north portico, including replacement of deteriorated railings, column bases, and roofline elements, strengthened the long-term resilience of the historic structure.
Our commitment extends beyond buildings. The conservation of the nineteenth-century Quaker Signature Quilt stabilized fragile silk, repaired structural damage, and created a custom magnetic mounting system that now allows this extraordinary object to be safely displayed at Woodlawn.
Together, these projects reflect an important truth: preservation is not simply about repairing what has aged. It is the careful, ongoing work of ensuring that future generations can experience the architecture, collections, and stories that define Woodlawn and Pope-Leighey House.
Preservation investment · FY 2025–26
Three projects completed · $48,720 in total
Two-year investment in the sites: $123,974
Before
BeforeThe cypress test section shown at left anchored this year's planning phase: the research, specifications, and work plan that will guide treatment of the full exterior.
The Quaker
Signature Quilt
19th century · Fabric and thread · Conserved May 2026 · $9,750
Popularized in the mid-19th century, signature quilts were a collaborative labor that reflected core Quaker values such as community and equality. Made as keepsakes or gifts for beloved members of the Meeting, each was completed by a group of makers who contributed their time and resources, each signing a unique block. While many signature quilts used ink, this quilt from the Woodlawn Quaker community features initials carefully embroidered by hand.
The quilt came to this year fragile enough for the Virginia Association of Museums to name it among the state's most endangered artifacts. Conservation stabilized the silk, repaired structural damage, and created a custom magnetic mount that lets it hang safely at Woodlawn.
Of the $48,720 invested in preservation this year, $9,750 went to this single object: the collection's own before and after.
The two-year record
This year's work builds on last year's. Between July 2024 and June 2026, $123,974 went into the sites.
From left: the museum shop, moved and renovated (the before photo dates from 2018–19); the Grandview Apartment kitchen, with the bathroom renovated in the same project; the north portico railing; and the museum entrance gable soffit and frieze, both restored with the roofline work in April 2026.
What stewardship
makes possible
Nearly 18,000 visitors found their way to us this year: sold-out evenings, a new conversation series, and an exhibition tracing the Quaker and free Black community that shaped Woodlawn.
Out in the community
The year did not stay on the property. WPL showed up across the region, and the region showed up for WPL.
“We visited other historic sites during our trip to Virginia and none could compare to Woodlawn and Pope-Leighey’s docent-led tours. We really enjoyed the personal interaction with your excellent guides and were truly impressed with their friendly demeanor, depth of knowledge, and detailed responses to every guest’s questions.” A visitor · 2026
The people who
make it possible
He spent a career at the Federal Reserve. His second calling was waiting in a Frank Lloyd Wright house.
Dave Beck began volunteering as a docent at Pope-Leighey House in 2019, after fifteen years as Senior Vice President and Regional Executive at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. Since retiring he has become a self-taught painter, and his paintings of Frank Lloyd Wright homes now sell in the museum shop. When he is not painting or leading tours, he hikes several days a week and travels with his wife, Cecilia.
New this year: The Volunteer Recognition Pin ProgramVolunteers now earn a pin at each milestone of service to the houses.
Seven volunteers gave 368.5 hours of service to the houses this year; eight volunteers gave 510 hours the year before.
Momentum you can measure
Giving nearly doubled, led by gifts from the Nelly's Needlers and The Alexandria Association for the Woodlawn exterior. Venue rentals grew 12 percent, and the endowment continued its climb toward the $5 million goal.
Contribution figures are the current FY26 forecast; the fiscal year closes in August. Venue revenue is shown on an accrual basis, consistent with National Trust financial reporting. Endowment value as of March 31, 2026.
With gratitude
Every name here made this year possible: more than 100 donors and partners, and the sponsors of the Needlework Show.
Artistic Artifacts · Ellen Meyer · Hampton Inn & Suites, Fort Belvoir Alexandria South · In Stitches Needlework
Woodlawn & Pope-Leighey House are nationally recognized as welcoming places where beauty inspires curiosity, truth deepens understanding, community creates belonging, and every visitor leaves with a deeper appreciation of themselves, one another, and the American story.
Next year, and the
year after that
Expressions of Grief
A whole-house exhibition filling Woodlawn's rooms for the coming season.
The artist residency returns
A new resident artist takes up work on the property.
Pope-Leighey exterior work
Cypress restoration continues around the full envelope of the house.
This report is the first of many. Thank you for being part of the first chapter.
With gratitude to the more than 100 donors and partners who made this year possible, including The Alexandria Association, the Nelly Custis Chapter NSDAR, Nelly's Needlers, and the Fairfax County Convention and Visitors Corporation.
9000 Richmond Highway
Alexandria, Virginia 22309
Open Thursday through Monday
April through December
woodlawnpopeleighey.org
Wright at Twilight
Evenings at Pope-Leighey · 2025 seasonAs the sun goes down, the little house comes into its own. Wright at Twilight opens Pope-Leighey House in the evening for self-guided tours, with wine and music on the lawn and the sunset doing the lighting design.
The program sold out its evenings across the 2025 season, and it returns each year as one of the site's signature experiences.
Needlework Show
63rd annual · March 2026 · Woodlawn mansionFor the 63rd year, the mansion filled with needle arts from across the country in the show billed as the largest judged exhibition of its kind in the nation. More than 600 pieces were submitted in 2026.
The show honors the needlework legacy of Nelly Custis Lewis and of the enslaved seamstresses who worked at Woodlawn. Nelly's Needlers, the volunteer guild founded in 1975, coordinate this event. To date, they have raised more than one million dollars for the site, including over $60,000 raised from this year's show.
Coffee & Conversation
With John Garrison Marks, Amanda Roper, and Martha Claire CatlinNew this year, Coffee & Conversation pairs an afternoon of coffee and refreshments with a keynote, a themed tour, and rarely displayed pieces from the collection. The first season brought John Garrison Marks on George Washington and public memory, Amanda Roper on the women who built the preservation movement, and Martha Claire Catlin on Woodlawn's Quakers during the Civil War.
The series drew a full house.
Friends Gather Here
Opened June 2026 · runs through DecemberIn partnership with Woodlawn Quaker Meeting, Friends Gather Here traces the bold experiment that began in 1846, when Quaker abolitionists purchased Woodlawn to prove a farm could prosper with free labor, working alongside free Black neighbors, many formerly enslaved by the Washingtons.
The exhibition gathers the deed to Woodlawn, books documenting Quaker weddings, and workbooks, a signature quilt, and story quilts by Sheryl Sims, and runs at Woodlawn through December 2026.
Nature Programming
Bird walks and mindfulness · across 126 acresThe estate's 126 acres were used for new programming. A spring bird walk led by Larry Meade, president of the Northern Virginia Bird Club, went looking for warblers and tanagers migrating.
Outdoor Mindfulness with Susan West Montgomery offered largely silent walking meditations at both houses: immersive experiences conducted in relative silence.
60 Years of Pope-Leighey
June 7, 2025 · on the groundsIn 1965, a Frank Lloyd Wright house saved from an interstate was rebuilt on the Woodlawn grounds. Sixty years later, on June 7, 2025, the site celebrated with an evening open house, live music in the fountain garden, and refreshments at sunset.
Pope-Leighey remains the only Frank Lloyd Wright house open to the public in the National Capital Region.
Story Quilts
Talks and story quilts · 2026Story quilter Sheryl Sims, a lifelong Alexandria-area resident, creates raw-edge applique wall hangings that carry her family's history, free and enslaved, in fabric. Her genealogy revealed ties to Woodlawn through several families that lived and worked here.
Her talks at Woodlawn brought that tradition to a new audience this year, and her quilts appear in the Friends Gather Here exhibition.
Farewell to Lafayette
With the American Friends of Lafayette · September 7, 2025Two hundred years after the Marquis de Lafayette ended his farewell tour of America, Woodlawn marked the bicentennial with a day of open-house tours, a talk on Lafayette's ties to the Custis and Lewis families, and a panel of three Lafayette interpreters.
Presented with the American Friends of Lafayette, the day closed a national commemoration in a house Lafayette himself had visited during that 1824–25 tour.
Saving Pope-Leighey House
May to December 2025 · inside WoodlawnWhen Interstate 66 came for her Frank Lloyd Wright house in 1964, Marjorie Leighey refused to let it fall. She enlisted help from the Secretary of the Interior, donated the house to the National Trust, and saw it rebuilt at Woodlawn in 1965.
This exhibition told the story of her fight to save her home for future generations, helping lay the groundwork for the passage of the Historic Preservation Act of 1966.
Arcadia Farm Camp Tours
Arcadia Farm Camp · June 2026Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture has farmed part of the Woodlawn estate since 2010, running farm education, a veteran farmer training program, and a mobile market from the historic ground.
This June, Arcadia's summer campers came up from the farm for a history hour inside the mansion: two halves of the property meeting in one afternoon.
Student Architecture Tours
School and homeschool groups · year roundSchool and homeschool groups tour both houses year round, and at Pope-Leighey the architecture lesson is hands on: students explore Wright's architectural methods through hands-on construction.
With an 1805 mansion and a 1941 Usonian house on one property, a single visit covers nearly two centuries of American design.
Preservation Showcase
The Alexandria Association · est. 1932The Alexandria Association, the citizen preservation society founded in 1932, has backed Woodlawn's fabric for years, including its major grant this year, funding restoration of Woodlawn's gable soffit, frieze, and north side entry porch.
The Association gathered at Woodlawn for its Preservation Showcase, seeing firsthand the work its members made possible.
NSDAR National Board Visit
National Society Daughters of the American Revolution · 2025Woodlawn was built between 1800 and 1805 for Lawrence Lewis and Eleanor 'Nelly' Parke Custis Lewis, Martha Washington's granddaughter, on land carved from Mount Vernon, to a design by William Thornton, first architect of the U.S. Capitol.
National leadership of the Daughters of the American Revolution, whose members have long supported the house, visited in 2025 to see the collection and the preservation work underway.
Nelly Custis Chapter, NSDAR
Donated January 2026The Nelly Custis Chapter of the NSDAR takes its name from the woman for whom Woodlawn was built, and its ties to the house run deep.
In January the chapter donated funds toward the conservation of a period dress in the Woodlawn collection, adding to the story the house tells about the women who lived and worked here.
Historic Samplers
With Barbara Hutson of Queenstown Sampler Designs · March 22, 2025Showcasing a variety of historical pieces, Barbara Hutson of Queenstown Sampler Designs detailed the history and unique traits of Quaker samplers.
Her presentation also highlighted the educational efforts of the Quakers and the Catholic Oblate Sisters of Providence, who taught both free and enslaved people.
