Washington is located northwest of Houston near Navasota off 105 on the banks of the Brazos River in Washington County.

The Texas Centennial celebration in 1936 and the Texas Sesquicentennial celebration in 1986 have been the outstanding twentieth-century events at Washington-on-the-Brazos. The Star of the Republic Museum, built in 1970, preserves many artifacts, as well as extensive historic documentation, of the nineteenth-century town. The Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, in cooperation with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and University of Texas at Austin Texana Programs, conducted excavations in the area between 1964 and 1969. Their findings made possible more authentic furnishing of the restored republic-era structures.