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Mount Vernon, Virginia

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF GEORGE WASHINGTON George Washington was twenty years old when he became the owner of the Mount Vernon estate on the Potomac, in accordance with the provisions of the will of Laurence Washington, his half-brother. At that time the house contained but eight rooms and an attic, four rooms on each floor. There were twenty-five hundred acres in the farm. As a boy Washington had tramped over every acre of the estate. When he was sixteen he made a plot of the region around Mt. Vernon. The original of the survey made at that time may be seen in the Library of Congress at Washington.

The young owner looked forward to years of quiet on his estate, but he was frequently called away from home for service in the militia of Virginia. In spite of these absences, however, he managed to make the acres surrounding the mansion give a good account of themselves.

When he responded to the call of the Colonies and became Commander-in-Chief of the army, he turned his back on Mt. Vernon with great reluctance, and for six years hardly saw the place he loved. But when the independence of the Colonies had been won he returned home, in the hope that he might be permitted to remain there in obscurity, farming his land and entertaining his friends in the house on the Potomac.

That he might have more room for his friends, he enlarged the house. On July 5, 1784, he wrote to his friend, William Rumney of Alexandria, asking him to inquire into the terms on which "a House Joiner and Bricklayer" might be engaged for two or three years. To the house, which dated from 1744, he made additions until it was three times as large as when he inherited the property. The alterations were completed in 1785. The completed house was ninety-six feet long, and thirty feet deep, with a piazza fifteen feet wide. The building material was wood, cut in imitation of stone.

While these alterations were in progress a visitor to Mt. Vernon was Charles Vardo, an Englishman.

When he returned home he wrote an account of his visit, in which said: "I crossed the river from Maryland into Virginia, near to the renowned General Washington's, where I had the honor to spend some time, and was kindly entertained with that worthy family. As to the General, if we may judge by the countenance, he is what the world says of him, a shrewd, good-natured, plain, humane man, about fifty-five years of age, and seems to wear well, being healthful and active, straight, well made, and about six feet high. He keeps a good table, which is always open to those of a genteel appearance. ... "The General's house is rather warm, snug, convenient and useful, than ornamental. The size is what ought to suit a man of about two or three thousand HOMES AND HAUNTS OF THE CAVALIERS 243 a year in England. The out-offices are good and seem to be not long built; and he was making more offices at each wing to the front of the house, which added more to ornament than to real use. The situation is high, and commands a beautiful prospect of the river which parts Virginia and Maryland, but in other respects the situation seems to be out of the world, being chiefly surrounded by woods, and far from any great road or thoroughfare. ...

The General's lady is a hearty, comely, discreet, affable woman, some few years older than himself. The General's house is open to poor travellers as well as rich, he gives diet and lodging to all that come that way, which indeed cannot be many, without they go out of their way on purpose. ..” ...