Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon is the former residence and plantation of George Washington, a Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States, and his wife, Martha. An American landmark, the estate lies on the banks of the Potomac River in Fairfax County, Virginia, approximately 15 miles south of Washington, D.C..
For other uses, see Mount Vernon (disambiguation).
The Washington family acquired land in the area in 1674. Around 1734, the family embarked on an expansion of its estate that continued under George Washington, who began leasing the estate in 1754 before becoming its sole owner in 1761.[4]
The mansion was built of wood in a loose Palladian style; the original house was built in about 1734 by George Washington's father Augustine Washington.[4] George Washington expanded the house twice, once in the late 1750s and again in the 1770s.[4] It remained Washington's home for the rest of his life. Following his death in 1799, the estate progressively declined under the ownership of several successive generations of the family as revenues were insufficient to maintain it adequately.
In 1858, the house's historical importance was recognized and was taken over by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, along with part of the Washington property estate. The mansion and its surrounding buildings escaped damage from the American Civil War, which damaged many properties in the Confederate States of America during the Civil War.
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 Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, being open to the public daily[5] 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, &ca. about Mount Vernon."[6]
Name[edit]
When George Washington's ancestors acquired the estate, it was known as Little Hunting Creek Plantation, named after the nearby Little Hunting Creek.[7] When Washington's older half-brother, Lawrence Washington, inherited it, he renamed it after Edward Vernon,[8] a vice admiral and his commanding officer during the War of Jenkins' Ear who captured Portobelo from the Spanish.[9] When George Washington inherited the property, he retained the name.[7]
History[edit]
Washington family[edit]
In 1674, John Washington, the great-grandfather of George Washington, and Nicholas Spencer came into possession of the land from which Mount Vernon plantation would be carved, originally known by its Indian name of Epsewasson.[29][a] The successful patent on the acreage was largely executed by Spencer, who acted as agent for his cousin Thomas Colepeper, 2nd Baron Colepeper,[29] the English landowner who controlled the Northern Neck of Virginia, in which the tract lay.[30]
When John Washington died in 1677, his son Lawrence, George Washington's grandfather, inherited his father's stake in the property. In 1690, he agreed to formally divide the estimated 5,000 acre (20 km2) estate with the heirs of Nicholas Spencer, who had died the previous year. The Spencers took the larger southern half bordering Dogue Creek in the September 1674 land grant from Lord Culpeper, leaving the Washingtons the portion along Little Hunting Creek. The Spencer heirs paid Lawrence Washington 2,500 lb (1,100 kg) of tobacco as compensation for their choice.[29]
Lawrence Washington died in 1698, bequeathing the property to his daughter Mildred. On 16 April 1726, she agreed to a one-year lease on the estate to her brother Augustine Washington, George Washington's father, for a peppercorn rent; a month later the lease was superseded by Augustine's purchase of the property for £180.[31] He built the original house on the site around 1734, when he and his family moved from Pope's Creek to Eppsewasson,[32] which he renamed Little Hunting Creek.[33] The original stone foundations of what appears to have been a two-roomed house with a further two rooms in a half-story above are still partially visible in the present house's cellar.[32]
Augustine Washington recalled his eldest son, Lawrence, George's half-brother, home from school in England in 1738, and set him up on the family's Little Hunting Creek tobacco plantation, thereby allowing Augustine to move his family back to Fredericksburg at the end of 1739.[7] In 1739, Lawrence, having reached 21 years of age, began buying up parcels of land from the adjoining Spencer tract, starting with a plot around the grist mill on Dogue Creek. In mid-1740, Lawrence received a coveted officer's commission in the British Army and made preparations to go off to war in the Caribbean with the newly formed American Regiment to fight in the War of Jenkins' Ear.[34] He served under Admiral Edward Vernon; returning home, he named his estate after his commander.
Access[edit]
Public transportation[edit]
The Fairfax Connector Routes 101, 151 and 152 buses travel daily between the Mount Vernon estate and the Huntington station on Washington Metro's Yellow Line.[85] The Route 11C Metrobus travels between the estate and the Braddock Road station on Metro's Blue and Yellow Lines during weekday peak hours.[86]
Cycling, running, and walking[edit]
The 17-mile (27 km)-long Mount Vernon Trail travels along the George Washington Memorial Parkway and the Potomac River between the Mount Vernon estate and Rosslyn in Arlington County, Virginia, where it connects to the Custis Trail.[87][88] The shared-use path is a part of the Potomac Heritage Trail, the East Coast Greenway and U.S. Bicycle Route 1.
The Mount Vernon Trail connects to shared-use paths that travel on the Francis Scott Key Bridge, the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge, the Arlington Memorial Bridge and the George Mason Memorial Bridge (one of the 14th Street bridges).[88][89] The bridges cross the river into Washington, D.C., where their shared-use paths connect to the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway Trail, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal towpath and the Capital Crescent Trail.[88][89]
Official website
Media related to Mount Vernon at Wikimedia Commons