Home with the President: As America heads to the polls, George Washington’s home in Virginia is proving to be a vote winner
When George Washington was a boy, the story goes that he cut down a family cherry tree and then confessed with the immortal words, “Father, I cannot lie….”
If only all politicians were this honest. The story is probably apocryphal and invented by early Washington biographer Mason Locke Weems. But Washington, after whom the nation’s capital is named, was responsible for many real achievements.
This becomes clear when you visit Mount Vernon, Virginia, home of America’s first president, overlooking the Potomac River, 16 miles south of the White House.
Before he oversaw the writing of the Constitution, defeated the English (with the help of the French), and strengthened American independence at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781, Washington had moved into his childhood home in 1754.
His father had built the large mansion in colonial Virginia on 20,000 acres of land some twenty years earlier.
George inherited the estate, which produced whiskey, raised cattle and grew tobacco on the plantation – largely worked by slaves – after the deaths of his father and older brother.
The slave quarters are located to the left of the lawn leading to the imposing facade of the house. Inside are rough wooden bunk beds and brick floors. In the last year of Washington’s life, in 1799, more than 300 enslaved African Americans lived on the Mount Vernon plantation.
The main house has a veranda with beautiful views of the dense Maryland forest across the swirling Potomac.
Tom Chesshyre visits Mount Vernon, pictured here, home of America’s first president, George Washington
A four-poster bed in Mount Vernon. The interior also features framed landscapes and portraits, a piano and decorative stucco ceilings
Washington (above) moved to the family home in 1754
This grove was purchased by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, which oversees the property (now 500 acres), so visitors can always enjoy the view as Washington, his wife Martha, and her children would have done. Their son and daughter were from Martha’s previous marriage (they did not have their own).
The house looks like it is made of stone, but it is made of wood and covered with a masonry-like sand mixture.
Inside is a prominent staircase and hall with rooms decorated in vibrant greens and blues, with framed landscapes and portraits, a piano and decorative stucco ceilings.
Significantly, in the hall is a display case containing a key to the Bastille in Paris, a symbol of the French Revolution in 1789, given to Washington by the Marquis de Lafayette, a French military officer who joined the Continental Army and helped the victory at Yorktown.
Washington died of a throat complication at age 67; he rests in a tomb to the right of the house, near a slave cemetery.
‘Slave quarters (above) are to the left of the lawn leading to the imposing facade of the house,’ says Tom
In his study is the desk where he wrote his will, in which he freed his slaves after Martha’s death.
Washington was influenced by abolitionists, a guide says, adding that his decision to serve only two four-year terms set an “important precedent.”
Washington did not want to be “king.” What he might think about the ongoing battle for the White House is unclear – suffice it to say that the America he led in the 18th century is a far cry from that of today.
