Mount Vernon
American Heritage Dictionary:
Top
Mount Ver·non1
An estate of northeast Virginia on the Potomac River near Washington, D.C. It was the home of George Washington from 1752 until his death in 1799. The mansion, built in 1743 by Lawrence Washington, George's half-brother, has been restored and is open to the public.
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:
Top
Mount Vernon
Home and burial place of George Washington. It is located in northern Virginia, U.S., on the Potomac River near Washington, D.C. The estate was inherited by Washington in 1752. Near the 18th-century Georgian mansion is a plain brick tomb, built at Washington's direction, that holds his remains and those of his wife and several family members. After the U.S. government declined to buy it, in 1858 the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union raised $200,000 and purchased the house and 200 acres (80 hectares) of the estate; the association still maintains the site.
For more information on Mount Vernon, visit Britannica.com.
Gale Encyclopedia of US History:
Top
Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon, George Washington's home, lies on the south bank of the Potomac River, near Alexandria, Virginia. The Washington family acquired Mount Vernon in 1690. The central part of the house was built about 1743 for Lawrence Washington, George's half-brother. Lawrence died in 1752, and the property passed to George a short time later.
In 1759 Washington and his wife, Martha, established household at Mount Vernon, and George lived as a tobacco planter there until the outbreak of war in 1775. After the revolution he returned to his home and completed improvements that he had begun earlier, including additions to buildings, gardens, and grounds. At the end of his presidency in 1797, Washington returned again to Mount Vernon, where he died in 1799. He and Martha Washington, who died in 1802, are interred there in the family vault.
The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, founded in 1856, assumed responsibility for restoration and maintenance at Mount Vernon. This organization acquired the property from the last private owner, Col. John Augustine Washington, in 1858. The wood mansion and thirteen subsidiary structures have survived, and several others have been reconstructed. Together they constitute one of the best remaining examples of the eighteenth-century plantations that were the center of a highly developed social and economic life.
Bibliography
Dalzell, Robert F. George Washington's Mount Vernon: At Home in Revolutionay America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
West, Patricia. Domesticating History: The Political Origins of America's House Museums. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1999.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
Top
Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon, NE Va., overlooking the Potomac River near Alexandria, S of Washington, D.C.; home of George Washington from 1747 until his death in 1799. The land was patented in 1674, and the house was built in 1743 by Lawrence Washington, George Washington's half brother. Mount Vernon was named for Admiral Edward Vernon, Lawrence's commander in the British navy. George Washington inherited it in 1754 and made additions that were not completed until after the Revolution. The mansion is a wooden structure of Georgian design, two and one-half stories high, with a broad, columned portico; wide lawns, fine gardens, and subsidiary buildings surround it. The mansion has been restored, after Washington's detailed notes, with much of the original furniture, family relics, and duplicate pieces of the period. The estate was purchased in 1860 by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association (organized 1856), its permanent custodian. In the tomb (built 1831-37) are the sarcophagi of George and Martha Washington and the bodies of other members of the family.
Bibliography
See E. Thane, Mount Vernon Is Ours (1966) and Mount Vernon: The Legacy (1967).
Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: Geography:
Top
Mount Vernon
The home of George Washington; a historical landmark in northeastern Virginia overlooking the Potomac River.
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 1994-2012 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
Gale Encyclopedia of US History
Encyclopedia of American History Copyright © 2006 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.
Read more
Mentioned in
If These Walls Could Speak: Mt. Vernon
(1990 History Film)
New Rochelle
(city of southeast New York on Long Island Sound)
Mount Vernon
(city, Ohio)
Mount Vernon
(city, Illinois)
» More