The building that housed the apothecary has been restored by Preservation Virginia to demonstrate 18th Century medical treatments. It also includes a small exhibit on Mercer's life and contributions to the American Revolutionary War.
SITE FEATURES
Surviving Structures
On this site...
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.
SHOP
EST. 1772
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.
HISTORIC PEOPLE
George Washington
Commander-in-Chief
Martha Washington
Mary Ball Washington
First Mother
Betty Washington Lewis