Restaurants within 2 miles of Fredericksburg, Virginia

Listing 67 restaurants in and around Fredericksburg.

Located on the Rappahannock River near the head of navigation at the fall line, Fredericksburg developed as the frontier of colonial Virginia shifted west out of the coastal plain. The land on which the city was founded was part of a tract patented in 1671. The Virginia General Assembly established a fort on the Rappahannock in 1676, just below the present-day city. In 1714, Lt. Gov. Alexander Spotswood sponsored a German settlement called Germanna on the Rapidan River, a tributary of the Rappahannock upstream from the future site of the city, and led an expedition westward over the Blue Ridge Mountains in 1716. As interest in the frontier grew, the colonial assembly responded by forming a new county named Spotsylvania (after the governor) in 1720 and establishing Fredericksburg in 1728 as a port for the county, of which it was then a part. Named for Frederick, Prince of Wales, son of King George II and father of King George III, the colonial town's streets bore the names of members of the royal family. The county court was moved to Fredericksburg in 1732 and the town served as county seat until 1780 when the courthouse was moved closer to the county center. Fredericksburg was incorporated as a town, with its own court, council, and mayor, in 1781, and received its charter as an independent city in 1879. The city adopted the city manager/council form of government in 1911. The city has close associations with George Washington, whose family moved to Ferry Farm on the Rappahannock opposite Fredericksburg in 1738. Washington's mother Mary later moved to the city, and his sister Betty lived at Kenmore, a plantation house then outside the city. Other significant early residents include the Revolutionary War generals Hugh Mercer and George Weedon, naval war hero John Paul Jones, and future U.S. president James Monroe. During the 19th century Fredericksburg sought to maintain its sphere of trade but with limited success, promoting the development of a canal on the Rappahannock and construction of a turnpike and plank road to bind the interior country to the market town. By 1837, a north-south railroad, which became the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad, linked the town to Richmond, the state capital, but a much-needed railroad joining the town to the farming region to the west remained unfinished until after the Civil War. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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