Mount Vernon

Today we visited Mount Vernon which was the plantation home of George Washington (POTUS No.1). The grounds are absolutely beautiful and the view out over the Potomac River from the back porch sensational. We toured the gardens which included the biggest kitchen garden I have ever seen. We also saw the slave quarters and were able to enter the house and see his study, bedroom (where he actually died), great room, visitors rooms and kitchen. There were 9 visitors rooms as he and Martha (his wife) believed that everyone was welcome to visit. One of the guides explained that in one year they had over 700 people come to stay.

Mount Vernon was the plantation house of George Washington, the first President of the United States, and his wife, Martha Dandridge Custis Washington. The estate is situated on the banks of the Potomac River in Fairfax County, Virginia. The Washington family had owned land in the area since the time of Washington's great-grandfather in 1674. In 1739 they embarked on an expansion of the estate that continued under George Washington, who came into possession of the estate in 1754.

The mansion is built of wood and was constructed by George Washington in stages between 1758 and 1778. It occupies the site of an earlier, smaller house built by George Washington's father Augustine, some time between 1726 and 1735. It remained Washington's country home for the rest of his life. Following his death in 1799, under the ownership of several successive generations of the family, the estate progressively declined as revenues were insufficient to maintain it adequately. In 1858, the house's historical importance was recognised and it was saved from ruin by The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association; this philanthropic organisation acquired it together with part of the Washington property estate. Escaping the damage suffered by many plantation houses during the American Civil War, Mount Vernon was restored.

Mount Vernon was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960 and is today listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is still owned and maintained in trust by The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, and is open every day of the year. Allowing the public to see the estate is not an innovation, but part of a 200-year-old tradition started by George Washington himself. In 1794 he wrote: "I have no objection to any sober or orderly person's gratifying their curiosity in viewing the buildings and gardens about Mount Vernon."