Epping Forest was built around 1690 in Lancaster County, just outside of Nuttsville, for Joseph Ball.[1][2] He named the estate after the Epping Forest in Essex, England.[1] The house was built with hand-hewned logs upon a Flemish bond brick foundation.[3] The plantation included barns, carriage houses, sheds, a smokehouse, and an icehouse.[3]
The plantation was the birthplace of Ball's daughter, Mary Ball Washington, who was the mother of George Washington.[1][4] After her father's death in 1711, she moved away from the plantation.[1]
An additional wing was added to the house in 1842.[1] That decade, the home was enlarged with Federal style detailing.[3]
A family cemetery is located on the property.[1]
The estate was also called Forest Plantation.[3]
In 1953, James deJarnette Jesse and Eoline Ball founded Epping Forest Antiques, which operated out of the houses's dining room.[5]
In 1958, members of the Washington family attempted to make the house a historical shrine, but the plan never came into fruition.[1]
A historical marker was erected nearby the plantation by the Virginia Conservation Commission in 1950 to mark the birthplace of George Washington’s mother.[6]