Mount Vernon, Virginia
Posted by: 
hykesj
N 38° 42.460 W 077° 05.172
18S E 318602 N 4286402
Mount Vernon, home of George Washington, appears on this pre-stamped envelope issued in celebration of the first President’s 200th birthday.
Waymark Code: WM114CK
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 08/14/2019
Views: 7
To commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of George Washington in 1932, the Post Office Dept., with the help of the Washington Bicentennial Commission, prepared a set of twelve postage stamps in various denominations to be available throughout the year. These stamps showed various portraits of George Washington, all painted from life. But earlier concepts for the set also included pictorial designs such as the Washington Monument and Mount Vernon. I’ve noticed that one of these pictorial designs was not completely abandoned: The proposed Mount Vernon vignette was used on a set of pre-stamped envelopes that were issued the same day as the adhesive stamps and were also available throughout the year. This is the first depiction of Mount Vernon on any U.S. postal issue.
Mount Vernon sits on a piece of land granted to John Washington (George Washington’s great-grandfather) in 1674. After being passed down through several generations of Washingtons (one of which was his father, Augustus) George Washington acquired the estate in 1761 after the deaths of his half-brother Lawrence (who named the estate Mount Vernon) and his wife, Ann. And although George Washington was not born at Mount Vernon, there is evidence that he did spend several years there as a child.
The mansion that appears on the stamp was the result of several expansions of the main house orchestrated by George Washington during his years on the estate. And it appears that the final architectural design was all Washington’s.
The estate is currently owned by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association who conduct various tours, maintain the operation and oversee all preservation work.
The Washington bicentennial pre-stamped envelope issue of 1932 consisted of five different denominations in different colors. These represented the most commonly used values of stamps at that time. (For the record, a rate change halfway through 1932 resulted in a sixth value being added.) The indicia on each envelope had the same basic design. I chose the 1½c value because 24 years later, the Post Office would issue another 1½c stamp that featured a similar view of Mount Vernon.
Stamp Issuing Country: United States
Date of Issue: 1-Jan-1932
Denomination: 1½c
Color: chocolate
Stamp Type: Single Stamp
Relevant Web Site: [Web Link]
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