George Washington's great-grandfather acquired the land on which Mount Vernon stands in 1674.  George Washington's father obtained Little Hunting Creek Plantation, as it was first called, in 1726.  At his death George's elder half-brother, Lawrence, inherited it.  Lawrence renamed the estate Mount Vernon in honor of his commanding officer Admiral Vernon.

At Lawrence's death, George first leased Mount Vernon from his brother's widow, then inherited the family estate.  On January 6, 1759, George married the wealthy widow, Martha Dandridge Custis, whose worth by today's standards has been calculated by some historians (who may exaggerate) as approaching six million dollars, not counting the vast acres of land she owned.  Before he moved his bride and her two children to Mount Vernon, Washington enlarged the main house to 2 ½ stories.

George Washington continued to enlarge, ornament and plan the grounds of his Virginia plantation throughout the long years of his military and political service.  He took an interest in the day-to-day activities of his estate amid the turmoil of war and the travail of establishing a new government.  Take, for example, his letter in 1776 to his cousin, Lund Washington, Mount Vernon's wartime manager.  The letter mixes disturbing wartime news with directions for the building of the two-story dining room addition.  Washington advises: "The chimney of the new room should be exactly in the middle of it---the doors and everything else to be exactly answerable and uniform---in short I would have the whole executed in a masterly manner."

Or consider the letter he wrote on June 6, 1796:  "Tell the Gardener I shall expect everything that a Garden ought to produce, in the most ample manner."  Washington also wrote: "My agricultural pursuits and rural amusements...(have) been the most pleasing occupation of my life, and the most congenial to my temper."

No detail was too small for him.  There are 37 volumes of Washington's writings, plus letters and weekly garden reports.  These precise records helped the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association in restoring Washington's home to its appearance at the time of his death, on December 14, 1799, as did a room-by-room inventory.

Bushrod Washington and John Augustine Washington, inheritors of Mount Vernon, worked hard to keep up the estate, but because it was no longer agriculturally productive it was difficult to maintain.  Their concern that it be preserved as a shrine led them to approach the federal government and the Commonwealth of Virginia about purchasing Mount Vernon; neither accepted the offer.

Mount Vernon’s journey back to its days of glory began on a moonlit night in 1853 when Mrs. Robert Cunningham, cruising the Potomac, saw the rundown house on the hilltop.  She wrote her daughter, "I was painfully distressed at the ruin and desolation of the home of Washington."  She further related, "The thought passed through my mind: why was it that the women of his country did not try to keep it in repair, if the men could not do it?  It does seem such a blot on our country."

The recipient of this letter, Ann Pamela Cunningham, realized her mother's hopes by founding the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association.  After both state and federal governments had refused to purchase Washington's home, her group bought the estate in 1858 for $200,000. Nineteenth-century additions were removed, furniture was restored and the atmosphere of the original plantation that Washington so enjoyed was recaptured.  Visitors can imagine the great man strolling the home he once called "a well resorted tavern."  It was never a glittering environment of power but always the home of a gentlemen farmer.  The presence of George Washington can be sensed at Mount Vernon, and this is perhaps the greatest legacy the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association offers to succeeding generations.