Feb 21, 2019
Image: Mount Vernon in 1859 before restoration - mountvernon.org
George Washington's Mount Vernon mansion is the centerpiece of his estate along the Potomac River. Learn more about this remarkable and historic building according to mountvernon.org.
1. A domestic structure has stood in the Mansion's footprint since 1735, when George Washington was just three years old.
George Washington’s father, Augustine Washington, built a modest one and a half story house there in 1734. Washington’s elder half-brother Lawrence lived at the property from 1741 until his death in 1752. George Washington began leasing the property in 1754 and although he did not inherit it outright until 1762 , he expanded the house in 1758, raising the roof to make the Mansion two and a half stories high. In 1774, he began to add the north and south wings, the cupola and piazza to create the structure we see today.
2. The Mansion is ten times the size of the average home in colonial Virginia.
At 11,028 square feet with two and a half stories and a full cellar, the Mansion dwarfed the majority of dwelling houses in late 18th-century Virginia. Most Virginians lived in one- or two-room houses ranging in size from roughly 200 to 1200 square feet; most of these houses could have fit inside the 24x31 foot New Room. The ceilings of the Mansion vary in height—the average height on the first floor is 10’ 9”, while on the third floor it is 7’3”.
3. The Mansion is not symmetrical, but George Washington wanted it to be.
Aerial view of the bowling green side of the Mount Vernon mansion. Study the façade closely and you’ll notice it’s not perfectly symmetrical.
Before Washington began construction work in 1774, he executed a design drawing showing how he intended the west front of the Mansion to look. The drawing shows the façade as completely symmetrical with the front door and cupola on the center axis, with the windows balanced to either side of it. But in truth, the door and cupola do not align, nor are the windows symmetrically placed. The construction of the stair in 1758 pushed the door to the north and a window south out of the passage and into the small dining room. This break with architectural ideal is a good example of the value Washington placed on practical solutions to challenging design questions.
4. The expansions of the Mansion have preserved priceless information about the history of the structure and informed its preservation.
The south and north additions to the Mansion were built right up against the outside of the 1758 house. The 1758 siding was not removed and it is still visible in some of the hard-to-reach crawlspaces of the house. You can see the original rusticated siding and its sand paint which has been protected for over 230 years, as well as evidence for second-floor doors that led to porches on top of the one-story “closets” that were removed in the 1770s. The piazza roof covers part of the original shingles on the east slope of the 1770s roof.
Since the piazza roof was built just a year after the New Room addition roof was installed, the preserved shingles are brand new and still have their original red paint!
Now you can explore historic Mount Vernon from your home or classroom. Our new Virtual Tour includes 360 degree panoramic images and clickable points of interest.
5. The cupola on the roof is topped with a weathervane in the shape of a dove of peace.
George Washington commissioned a weathervane for the Mansion’s new cupola while he was presiding over the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. In his order to Philadelphia architect Joseph Rakestraw, Washington specified that the weathervane should “have a bird…with an olive branch in its Mouth…that it will traverse with the wind and therefore may receive the real shape of a bird.” Rakestraw constructed the weathervane from copper with an iron frame and lead head. Unfortunately, because of the increased air pollution around the Washington, D. C. area, the original dove of peace had to be permanently removed in 1993.
Today an exact replica rests in its place, while the original weathervane is displayed in the Donald W. Reynolds Museum.
6. The exterior of the Mansion is rusticated to look like stone - but it is actually made of yellow pine siding.
Rustication is a technique designed to make a wooden house appear to be constructed from stone by beveling the edges of the siding boards to resemble individual blocks of stone. The siding was painted and sand was thrown onto the wet paint, creating a rough stone-like texture.
Washington first rusticated the Mansion in 1758 to make it appear constructed of structural sandstone blocks, which were more expensive than wood or even brick. In doing so, Washington preserved the house his father built, while making it appear in the same league with other more substantially-built—and expensive—houses.
7. The piazza is one of George Washington's contributions to colonial Virginian architecture.
The two-story porch facing the Potomac River is one of the Mansion’s most iconic architectural features and was designed by Washington. In the 18th century, it was extremely rare to see such a grand façade on a private residence. Washington’s design for the two-story piers copies the pilasters on the exterior of the New Room’s Palladian window, although at a much greater ratio of width to height. The piazza provided an additional living space and is widely copied on homes throughout America today.
8. Mount Vernon has a full basement, but there are no secret passages leading from it.
The Mansion basement or cellar played a key role in the movie National Treasure: Book of Secrets and although there is no tunnel leading from it, it was an extremely important part of life in the Mansion.
The cellar was used for a variety of purposes and was divided into several rooms. One room, closest to the kitchen, has a large fireplace and was used as a dining area for the housekeeper and other white servants as well as to heat food before it was served to the Washingtons. When Washington died in 1799 there were a variety of items stored in the basement including wine, sand for rustication, and potatoes.
Go behind the scenes to see the Mount Vernon locations that played a starring role in "National Treasure: Book of Secrets." Hear stories about the filming, and learn how film locations were used in George Washington's lifetime.
9. The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association bought the Mansion (and the Estate) for $200k in 1858
Initially writing under the nom de plume, "A Southern Matron," Ann Pamela Cunningham challenged first the women of the South, and later the women of the entire country, to save the home of George Washington from dilapidation.
After convincing John Augustine Washington III to sell the property, Cunningham and the organization she had founded, the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, raised $200,000 to purchase the mansion and two hundred acres. The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association took over operation of the estate in 1860.
10. Today 1 million visitors pass through the Mansion each year, but Washington himself hosted as many as 677 guests at the Mansion in one year, in 1798.
The Washingtons had many visitors at Mount Vernon, particularly after the Revolutionary War as Washington’s political stature grew. Many of these visitors were close friends, family members, or neighbors, but others were unknown to the Washington's; in 1797, Washington commented about a recent dinner “at which I rarely miss seeing strange faces; come, as they say, out of respect to me. Pray, would not the word curiosity answer as well?” The steady pace of visitors continued after Washington’s death in 1799. Martha Washington subsequently moved out of their shared bed chamber to a small room on the third floor. A stove was installed to warm the room, which was described as a “cramped attic space.” Her presence on the third floor also afforded her some privacy from the steady stream of visitors who continued to travel to Mount Vernon.
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