Left from US 1 in Alexandria 8.9 m. on another section of the Mount Vernon Memorial Highway to MOUNT VERNON (open winter 9-4 weekdays, 1-4 Sun.; summer 9-5 weekdays, 1-5 Sun.; adm. 25¢, children 15¢). At the end of a long vista is the white frame mansion flanked by numerous outbuildings, also frame, arranged symmetrically on the estate laid out by George Washington.
The rectangular mass of the two-story Georgian Colonial house, joined to the nearest outbuildings by curving arcades, has a modillion cornice and a hip roof with a low central pediment and widely spaced dormers. A graceful cupola pierces the roof midway between the two chimneys at the ridge ends. The house, its sides covered with pine slabs beveled to simulate stone blocks, faces east from behind the tall columns of its familiar pizza. The tree-bordered lawn, encompassed by a ha-ha wall, slopes steeply to the Potomac.
Furnished copiously with Washington’s belongings, the handsome interior expresses, no less eloquently than the stately exterior, the character of the first President. Every room possesses relics of interest. In the central hall, where the Colonial color has been restored, hangs the key to the Bastille, a gift from La Fayette. The dining room has a plaster ceiling, cornice, and overmantel plaque designed in Adam style. In this room hangs Wollaston’s portrait of Lawrence Washington, the builder of the house. Across the south end of the house is the general’s study where copies of most of the books he possessed have been restored to the shelves. Here he wrote innumerable letters and made notes in his voluminous diary. At the north end of the house is the spacious banquet hall, a story-and-half high, with coved and plaster-decorated ceiling and a Palladian window. The Italian marble mantel opposite was the gift of a London admirer, who also presented the two vases standing upon it. Portraits of Washington by Charles Willson Peale and Gilbert Stuart hang here. In the music room stands again the £1,000 harpsichord Washington imported for his little step-granddaughter, Nelly Custis. Upon it lies the flute that Washington never learned to play. The bedrooms on the second floor are completely furnished.
The numerous outbuildings are those that were essential to the self-sufficient plantation of the eighteenth century: Smoke house, dairy , wash house, greenhouse, coach house, spinning house, barn and others. An information booth occupies part of the restored kitchen, in the south wing; and farther away, to the northeast, a reproduction of the slave quarters contains a museum in which a large number of relics are displayed, notably the bust of Washington tat Houdon made and used as a model for his marble statue in Richmond. The 5,000 acres of the original grant stretch along the Potomac between Dogue Creek and Little Hunting Creek. John Washington - Great-grandfather of George and Nicholas Spencer applied for a patent to the land in April 1669. Half the property - the part called Hunting Creek - descended to Lawrence, the son of John Washington, and father of George Washington. In 1735 Augustine Washington built a house here and moved from Wakefield, bringing with him his three-year-old son, George. In 1738, however Augustine Washington moved again, this time to Ferry Farm (see Tout 16A).
Lawrence, the half-brother of George Washington, inherited Hunting Creek in 1743 and that year built a house for his bride, Anne Fairfax, the daughter of Colonel William Fairfax, probably on the foundations of his father’s house, which had burned a few years before. He called the place Mount Vernon for his old commander, Admiral Edward Vernon of the British navy. Richard Blackburn was the architect. At the age of 16 George Washington came here to live with Lawrence. In 1752 Lawrence died. He left the estate to his daughter Sarah, subject to the dower rights of her mother, stipulating that if Sarah died without heirs Mount Vernon should descend to his half-brother George. On Sarah’s death and her mother’s remarriage a few months later George Washington assumed possession of the estate. In 1754 he purchased his sister-in-law’s right to the property and later the 2,500 acres that had once belonged to Nicholas Spencer. Subsequently he bought adjacent land.
To Mount Vernon in 1759 George Washington brought his bride. He had great plans for becoming the leading agriculturist in America and operated the estate as five separate farms. He tried out crop rotation, kept elaborate notes, and conferred with friends who were similarly experimenting. In 1773 he added the third story to the house, with six bedrooms beneath the eaves and drew plans for the north and south additions. Called to lead the army of his rebellious country, he left the management of the estate and the execution of his building plans to his distant cousin, Lund Washington. He was at home again just in time to supervise the decoration of the ceiling in the great banquet hall. In 1783 George Washington returned to Mount Vernon to devote himself, as he told both diary and friends, to agriculture and domesticity. His field yielded harvest vastly satisfying; he was awarded ‘a premium for raising the largest jackass’ by the Agriculture Society of South Carolina.
In 1787 he was called to preside at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. In 1789 he became the first President of the United States. Washington returned to Mount Vernon in 1797 for two quiet years. With him and his wife lived his step-grandchildren, Nelly and George Washington Parke Custis, whom he had adopted. On December 14 1799 George Washington died; Martha Washington died three years later.
In 1853 Ann Pamela Cunningham of South Carolina set out to organize a society that would purchase and restore Washington’s estate then in the hands of descendants of his brother. The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union was formed in 1856 and in 1860, after having raised $200,000 for the purchase, it acquired the mansion and part of the land.
From: Virginia - A Guide to the Old Dominion State, 1940 Pg 338 - 339.
Today
Mount Vernon, owned and operated by the nonprofit The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, is open to the public every day of the year. Access to the grounds and tours are available by paid admission.