Hugh Mercer Apothecary Shop

VA - Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA

1020 Caroline Street, Fredericksburg, VA, USA

MUSEUM

VISITOR INFORMATION

TICKET REQUIRED

Open year-round: April to October, Monday to Saturday 10am-4pm and Sunday 12pm-4pm; November to March, Monday to Saturday 11am-4pm (closed Tuesdays) and Sunday 12pm-4pm. Admission is $12 for adults and $6 for youth 6-18, free under 6.

https://www.washingtonheritagemuseums.org/museum-details

Discounts are available for AAA members, seniors, military, and Blue Star families; members are admitted free.

SITE FEATURES

Surviving Structures

Peak visitation season unconfirmed. No reliable site-specific monthly attendance pattern was established.

April-May or October for apothecary interpretation and milder Fredericksburg walks. Check the current public day and allow time for the tour before last entry.

HISTORIC SITES NEARBY

Nearby Historic Sites

miles

Landmark

WHO WAS HERE

4

George Washington

Martha Washington

Mary Ball Washington

Betty Washington Lewis

About Hugh Mercer Apothecary Shop

This eighteenth-century building was restored to house the Hugh Mercer Apothecary Shop, a museum of medicine, pharmacy, and military and political affairs. Dr. Mercer served the citizens of Fredericksburg with medicines and treatments of the time. Leeches, lancets, snakeroot, and crab claws made up just some of the remedies. Dr. Mercer practiced medicine for fifteen years in Fredericksburg. His patients included Mary Washington. Dr. Mercer left his practice to join the Revolutionary army and died as a Brigadier General at the Battle of Princeton.

Washington Heritage Museums operates the Hugh Mercer Apothecary Shop in a restored eighteenth-century building at 1020 Caroline Street. Guided interpretation and a medicinal garden explain colonial medicine. The preserved building and museum presentation are distinct from a claim that every interior fitting, remedy or displayed object is original.

History happened here at Hugh Mercer Apothecary Shop

Hugh Mercer Apothecary was an apothecary founded by Hugh Mercer in the mid-18th century. Mercer was a doctor who fled Scotland after the Battle of Culloden. He travelled to Pennsylvania, where he met Colonel George Washington during the French and Indian War and later moved to Fredericksburg, Virginia, on Washington's advice to practice medicine and operate an apothecary.

Hugh Mercer (January 16, 1726 – January 12, 1777) was a brigadier general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He fought in the New York and New Jersey campaign and was mortally wounded at the Battle of Princeton.