Visiting Mount Vernon
There is so much to see in our nation’s capital.
During my recent trip to Washington, DC, I also stopped at Mount Vernon - the historic home of George Washington, the first president of the United States, and his wife, Martha. The estate sits on the banks of the Potomac River in Fairfax County, Virginia. It is located south of Washington, D.C. and Alexandria, Virginia and is across the river from Prince George's County, Maryland.
Here are more of my photos, enjoy. And if you're in the area now through 2022, you can visit Mount Vernon using the following information for discounted tickets. Use promo code: MSMV20 for 20% off a grounds pass and up to six tickets. The offer is valid from now through December 31, 2022.
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- The Mansion at George Washington’s Mount Vernon is one of the most iconic 18th-century homes in the United States. The original house was built by George Washington’s father, Augustine, and George Washington expanded the house twice – once in the late 1750s and again in the 1770s. The present day mansion is more than 11-thousand square feet. This is the West Front of the mansion taken from the Bowling Green.
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- And here is the West Front entrance to Mount Vernon. Look closely at the lack of symmetry. Washington reused the original four room house as the core of the expansion.
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- Above the entrance is the bulls-eye window and cupola.
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- Here is a view from the inside of the window looking out to the Bowling Green. The current size and shape of the Bull’s Eye Room were created by the addition of the wide pediment in 1778. Some of the shelves in this room are part of the original shelving in this space. The shelving confirms this room was a storage space, almost certainly the “China Closet upstairs.”
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- And here is the view looking out from the cupola to the Bowling Green.
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- The mansion is flanked by colonnade passageways from the Servants Hall and the Mansion.
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- The exterior of Mount Vernon is made to look like stone, but actually it is made up of pine boards beveled to look like masonry, then sanded and painted.
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- When George Washington returned home from the American Revolution, he was immediately referred to as a modern day Cincinnatus after the Roman statesman, Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus (519-430 BC). Cincinnatus fought to protect the Roman republic, and like Washington, after claiming victory returned to the plow of the farmer rather than assuming absolute authority over the state. Samuel Vaughan recognized this and sent Washington a marble mantelpiece with bucolic scenes of rural life symbolically celebrating the General’s return.
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- The view from Mount Vernon’s Piazza, or veranda, has been preserved by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association to look as if it did during Washington’s time. Across the river is Maryland and Piscataway National Park.
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- Added to the Mansion in 1777, the two-story piazza is the Mansion’s most distinctive architectural feature. Extending the full length of the back of the house, it also has a practical function – catching the river breezes on a hot and humid Virginia day. The Washingtons treated the piazza as an outdoor room, serving afternoon tea and coffee to visitors and family members seated in comfortable Windsor chairs.
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- Upon his death in 1799, George Washington’s estate inventory listed 30 Windsor chairs on the piazza. These reproduction chairs are based on an original in the collection that descended in the family of Washington’s enslaved body servant, Christopher Sheels. In July 1800, Martha Washington paid to have the chairs on the piazza painted with mahogany – a paint scheme that was replicated on these reproductions.
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- This 1796 stipple engraving depicts a calm and resolute Washington before the Battle of Trenton, in which the American troops defeated a garrison of Hessian soldiers after the famous Christmas night crossing of the Delaware River in December of 1776.
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- Nearby is reproduction furniture in the Front Parlor. In 1774, Washington received a new suite of parlor furniture as a gift from his friend and neighbor, George William Fairfax. This suite consisted of a set of eight backstools, chairs upholstered on the back and the seat, and a sofa all upholstered in luxurious blue silk and worsted damask.
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- The ornamental plaster ceiling was made by Irish plasterer Richard Tharpe in the late 1780s. The ceiling features neoclassical detailing—swags, husks, and ovals. Documentation and conservation work in 2018 confirmed that much of the 18th-century ceiling ornament still survives.
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- George Washington died in this bed on December 14, 1799. The bedstead’s tall, slender, turned posts exemplify the neat and plain style the Washingtons favored. During the winter, it was hung with dimity curtains to ensure warmth and privacy. Netting installed in the warmer months kept insects out but permitted cool evening air to flow through. The bedding shown here is a reproduction.
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- After returning to Mount Vernon from the presidency, Martha Washington used this small, Louis XVI-style writing desk to manage her household business. Originally called a “bonheur du jour,” meaning daytime delight, it was made in France around 1787 and was designed especially for ladies’ use. The Washingtons purchased it in 1790, from the household of the French minister to the United States. The upper cabinet of the desk features fashionable tambour panels, created with flat, vertical strips of wood glued to a canvas backing. The panels slide in grooves revealing internal compartments for storage. The hinged writing flap below also lifts up. In a letter, dated June 23, 1775, George Washington wrote Martha that he was about to take up his new duties as the commander in chief of the Continental Army. One of only two surviving letters from the general to his wife, this document was found behind one of the drawers in Martha’s writing desk. Mrs. Washington destroyed the couple’s correspondence, presumably to preserve their privacy.
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- By the time of his death, George Washington had acquired more than 1200 books, pamphlets, magazines, and newspapers – he loved to learn. He organized this extensive collection in built-in bookcases and free-standing units. The subjects ranged from politics and economics, religion, agriculture, and military matters, to poetry and literature, applied and natural sciences, and general reference works.
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- The most faithful likeness of George Washington is a terra cotta bust created by Jean Antoine Houdon. The French sculptor visited Mount Vernon in October 1785 to carefully observe Washington’s movements and expressions, even making a plaster “life mask” of Washington’s face to accurately preserve every detail. Washington was then 53 years old. When completed, Houdon gave the bust to Washington and it has remained at Mount Vernon for more than two centuries.
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- In March 1797, Washington bought this stately secretary-bookcase from Philadelphia cabinetmaker John Aitken for his study at Mount Vernon. His choice, purchased for the exceptional sum of $145, was based on fashionable British neoclassical design. His chair is an early edition of a swivel – this one on four legs.
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- The kitchen was a central hub of activity on the Mount Vernon estate. Cooks arose at 4am each day to light the fire in the bread oven and prepare for the Washingtons’ usual meals: breakfast, dinner, and sometimes tea. Martha Washington planned each day’s menus, selected ingredients, and supervised food preparations. The Washingtons were well known for their hospitality.
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- It was such a beautiful day for a tour of Mount Vernon. Here is a row of outbuildings on the South Lane.
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- There are four main gardens at Mount Vernon. This is the Lower Garden, or Kitchen Garden. While George Washington oversaw most aspects of the grounds, Martha Washington oversaw the kitchen garden, allowing her to keep fruits and vegetables on the table year round.
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- The octagonal structures at the west end of the Upper and Lower Gardens were used to store tools and seeds. They also provided sheltered workspaces for gardeners, who cultivated new plants, gathered seeds, and carefully stored them.
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- This graceful, serpentine-front sideboard is one of two that George Washington purchased from Philadelphia cabinetmaker John Aitken in February 1797 for his “New Room” at Mount Vernon. When the New Room was used for dining, the sideboard could be set up to serve food, but more often than not, it displayed ceramic figurines and knife boxes, while storing linens and other valuable objects in its drawers.
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- This is a view of the New Room, where Mount Vernon’s curators setup a holiday dining scenario. This is one of two English-made tables. One table is stored in the Central Passage, the other is this one in the Dining Room. While the winter scenario is in place guests see a completely empty Dining Room, bare of furniture showing the practicality of furniture in the 18th century. The beautiful light green color is called “green verditer.”
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- If you haven’t yet been, I hope you take some time to visit Mount Vernon one day to see the place that the Father of Our Country and the first First Lady called home. For more information, go to the Mount Vernon web site.
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