Mount Vernon and the Joys of Virginia
Home to George and Martha Washington. George Washington made Mount Vernon his home from 1754 until his death in 1799. He enlarged the house, expanded his estate from 2,100 to 8,000 acres, and experimented with dozens of crops, ornamental plants and trees. Today, visitors to Mount Vernon may view the Mansion, outbuildings, museums, the tomb of George Washington and Martha Washington and more than 60 acres of gardens and grounds. An approved historic trail is available to members of scouting organisations. Mount Vernon is restored and maintained by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association.
Mount Vernon is open seven days a week, every day of the year, including holidays and Christmas. Visitors are invited to tour the Mansion house and more than a dozen outbuildings including the slave quarters, kitchen, stables, and greenhouse. Stroll four different gardens, hike the Forest Trail, and explore the George Washington: Pioneer Farmer site, a four-acre working farm that includes a re-creation of Washington’s 16-sided treading barn. George and Martha Washington rest in peace in the tomb where wreath-laying ceremonies are held daily. The Slave Memorial and Burial Ground are nearby. George Washington worked tirelessly to expand his plantation from 2,000 acres to 8,000 and the mansion house from six rooms to twenty-one.
The original house and lands around Mount Vernon had been in the Washington family for several generations before George Washington took ownership. The beginnings of the original house were started in 1741 by Augustine Washington (father of George) and named Mount Vernon in honour of Vice Admiral Edward Vernon, commanding officer of Lawrence Washington (half brother of George). The house erected on the bluff overlooking the Potomac River.
At the end of military service, Lawrence Washington took up residence at Mount Vernon in 1742. After the death of his father and marriage into the Fairfax family, Lawrence undertook the first of several expansions to the original house. George Washington took over the estate and house after the death of his half-brother and nephew in 1754 and began to improve the house, rebuilding the house on top of the original foundations and doubling its original size. When Anne Fairfax Washington Lee died in 1761, George Washington inherited the whole Mount Vernon estate.
An avid reader and fox hunter, George Washington paid careful attention to the housing and care of his horses. Martha Washington shared this concern; she believed in riding as a form of exercise for women. The stable was the centre of Mount Vernon’s domestic transportation system. Six slaves worked in the stable area including Peter, who oversaw feeding and grooming the horse, cleaning harnesses and saddles and collecting manure for later use as fertilizer.
“The General himself … breaks all his own horses and he is a very excellent and bold horseman, leaping the highest fences, and going extremely quick.” (Marquis de Chastellux, November 1780).
George Washington was a meticulous and avid gardener and undertook numerous agricultural farms on the Mount Vernon estate. Mount Vernon was also home to one of the USA’s largest Whisky Distilleries.
George Washington died in his master bedroom on December 14, 1799. His Will dictated that he be buried on the Mount Vernon estate having already selected a site for a new tomb. The older burial vault on the estate was beginning to deteriorate and so the new tomb was built and in 1831 George, Martha and several other family members were buried in the new tomb.
English Boxwoods crowd the entry path to Mount Vernon. These were taken as cuttings in England by Major General Henry Lee (father of Robert E Lee).
Link: George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens Website
