The Starr Center, located in the historic Custom House on the Chester River, builds on Washington College’s national tradition as the first college founded in the new nation under the patronage of General George Washington.

The Center traces the evolution of modern American thought from its roots in the ideas of the nation’s founders. One of its signature programs is the George Washington Book Prize, launched in 2005 in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and George Washington’s Mount Vernon. The Prize awards $50,000 annually to an author of a published work contributing to a greater understanding of the life and career of George Washington and/or the founding era.