Mount Vernon
Sitting on a bluff overlooking the Potomac River, George Washington’s former home at Mount Vernon is, next to the White House it partially inspired, probably the most famous and recognizable house in the United States. For over one and a half centuries US Navy ships departing or arriving at Washington Navy Yard rendered salutes as they sailed past the house, though for most of that time the distance shielded the eyes of the men aboard from the dilapidated condition of the house and outbuildings. In Washington’s day an active fishery was located on the river, long gone by the middle of the nineteenth century. The manicured grounds were overgrown with weeds, and the house near collapse.
Mount Vernon was a much smaller house when George Washington received it from the estate of his brother Lawrence. It was Lawrence who gave the estate its name, after his British Navy commanding officer, Admiral Edward Vernon. Washington more than trebled the size of the house over a period of twenty years, and expanded the plantation into a diverse seat of industry, with a fishery, a nail factory, a brewery, a distillery, a gristmill, a sawmill, and a coopery. Washington was one of the earliest planters to practice crop rotation to keep the soil of his farms fertile. His house became famous in his lifetime.
Washington was seldom without guests while at Mount Vernon, and Virginia hospitality and his own social traditions ensured that all were welcome. Washington also had no objection to the grounds and its buildings being subject to the inspection of uninvited visitors, so long as they were sober and caused no harm. During his lifetime the house became an attraction for tourists, reachable by a good road to Alexandria or by the broad Potomac rolling past the house. After his death (he was buried on the grounds) the house became less of a curiosity, and it began a period of decline.
Shortly before the Civil War the Mount Vernon Ladies Association purchased the mansion with the intent of restoring it, and during the war caretakers remained in the house and on the grounds. Several battles of the Civil War occurred in the vicinity of the house and grounds, but by apparent mutual agreement neither the house nor any of the remaining outbuildings were molested by troops of either the North or South. Officers and men of both sides were known to have visited the building and Washington’s tomb, often at the same time, and were asked by the caretakers to cover their uniforms while on the site.
Mount Vernon and its grounds are today one of America’s most visited landmarks. It is wholly supported by the Ladies Association and the income it generates from admissions, with no tax dollars being used for its restoration, maintenance, or operation. About one million visitors tour the site annually, and it is open every day of the year, decorated seasonally to reflect how it would have appeared when Washington was in residence. It is estimated that over 80 million visitors have been to Mount Vernon over the years since Washington’s death, going to the home he once referred to as a “well resorted tavern.”