During both the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the Garrison was the base and headquarters for members of the British West Indies Regiment in Barbados. In 1751, leader of the American Revolution and first president of the United States, George Washington, stayed at the district's Bush Hill section for six weeks with his sick brother. This restored property remains as a fixture at the Garrison where it is simply called the 'George Washington House'.[1] By the middle of the eighteenth century wealthy prominent Barbadians and regiment troops started the sporting tradition of horse racing at the Garrison racetrack.
On 30 November 1966 the Garrison Historic Area was the location where the ceremony was held for the lowering of the Union Flag (the flag of the United Kingdom), and the raising of the Barbados flag, thus ushering in full independence for the country of Barbados from the United Kingdom.