George Washington’s Mount Vernon

We visited George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate while staying at the nearby Pohick Bay Regional Park in Lorton, Virginia about 12-miles away.

We started our visit at the visitor center, where we attended a virtual presentation of the home and its main rooms. The majority of the home was closed during our visit for renovations, so the virtual presentation took the place of the home tour. Even though the home was closed there was plenty to see as we walked around the estate including expansive views along the Potomac River, out-buildings, gardens, a pier on the Potomac, and a farm area.

The building began as a one and one-half story house built in 1734 by George Washington’s father, Augustine Washington, and received its well-known name from his half-brother Lawrence Washington. George Washington began running Mount Vernon in 1754, and over the next 45 years slowly enlarged the dwelling to create the 21-room residence we see today. Washington oversaw each renovation, advising on design, construction, and decoration, despite being away much of the time. Conscious that the world was watching, Washington selected architectural features that expressed his growing status as a Virginia gentleman and ultimately as the leader of a new nation. The estate contained 8,000 acres when George Washington lived there.

As we walked around the outside of the home and outbuildings it was fascinating to see how the wood siding had been shaped and painted to have the appearance of stone. There were several gardens near the home including formal gardens, a kitchen garden, and an orchard as well as a large greenhouse next to the upper gardens.

In 1858 the now run-down and dilapidated building and 200 acres of surrounding land was purchased by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association (MVLA) for $200,000 with the intention to preserve George Washington’s residence and to prevent its sale to land speculators. The MVLA became the nation’s first historic preservation organization, as well as one of the first national women’s organizations. Mount Vernon opened to the public in 1860, and renovations and refurnishing of the building continued over the next few decades. Between 1868 until 1891, the MVLA furnish each room in the Mansion. Eighteenth-century pieces were to be used wherever possible, with more recent Greek Revival and Victorian furnishings filling the gaps. Many decades would pass before the MVLA could furnish all rooms with original Washington pieces or very similar examples.

Mount Vernon was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is still owned and maintained in trust by the MVLA, being open to the public daily in recognition of George Washington’s 1794 acknowledgement of public interest in his estate: “I have no objection to any sober or orderly person’s gratifying their curiosity in viewing the buildings, Gardens, etc. about Mount Vernon.”

We had booked a table at the Mount Vernon Inn Restaurant which is near the visitor entrance on the estate grounds, and we took a break to eat lunch during our visit. The restaurant promotes its menu as featuring “the flavors of early America”. We found there to be a great selection to choose from to suit all diets and preferences and thoroughly enjoyed our meal in the historical stylings of the restaurant dining room.

When we booked our tickets, we signed up for the 60-minute “Enslaved People of Mount Vernon Tour”. Our small group was led by an expert tour guide as we explored the lives and contributions of the enslaved community who built and operated Mount Vernon. In 1799, more than 300 slaves lived and worked on the five farms that made up Washington’s 8,000-acre plantation. We learned about their daily life, and visited the slave quarters to view reproduction clothing, tools, furniture, cookware, ceramics, toys, and personal.

Following his death on December 14, 1799, George Washington’s remains were placed in a family vault on the hillside overlooking the Potomac River. Washington knew this site would not be tenable for much longer and stipulated in his will that a New Tomb be constructed below his orchard. In 1831, the remains from the old family vault, including those of General and Mrs. Washington, were moved to their current resting place, which we visited as we walked from the home, through the orchard and towards the Slave Memorial.

The Slave Memorial at Mount Vernon was designed by students attending the architectural school at Howard University. It was dedicated and opened to the public on September 21, 1983, and sits within the burial grounds for those enslaved and a few free Black Americans who worked at Mount Vernon in the 18th and 19th centuries. The memorial is located approximately 50 yards southwest of George and Martha Washington’s tomb, on a bluff above the Potomac River.

We visited the pier and wharf on the Potomac where visitors to Mount Vernon would have arrived along the river and followed the path around to the farm area of the estate with its 16-sided barn located at one end. The farm area provides a small representation of the more than 3,000 acres Washington cultivated during the second half of the 18th century across four different farms. The original 16-sided barn was built in 1792 on Mount Vernon’s Dogue Run Farm by enslaved craftsmen. The barn was the center of a complex that included two corn houses and two stables housing approximately 20 animals who worked in the barn. The barn was reconstructed in 1996 in accordance with the original plans and specifications that Washington sent to his carpenter.

The brilliance of the 16-sided treading barn was taking the most efficient method of processing horsepower/treading and moving it under cover. The other unique quality of the barn was its two-story structure with one-and-a-half-inched gapped floorboards on the top level where an acre’s worth of wheat could be laid down for horses to trot on. The horses were led up the ramp and immediately put into a trot for 30 to 45 minutes. Their hooves knocked 90 percent of the seed from the top of the stalk down through the floorboards to the clean wooden granary floor below. Only 10 percent of the straw escaped through the floorboards, keeping 90 percent of that waste on the treading floor. Once the seed had fallen to the granary floor below, it was swept up, and the seed was separated from the chaff in a process called “winnowing.” At that point, the grain was either stored or transported to Washington’s gristmill for processing into flour.

Our visit to Mount Vernon offered a fascinating glimpse into the life of George Washington and his family, in particular his life as a landowner and farmer as well as a great Statesman and General.

Pictures from our visit are provided below.