We spent the entire day at Mount Vernon. Wow, I feel completely inundated with George Washington information. What a fantastic place! I didn’t think we’d spend nearly that amount of time there, but we could have spent another few hours if our brains could take it and if it stayed open any later.
The first two pictures are of us are with George, Martha and their two grandchildren that they raised when Martha’s son died. George & Martha never had their own children, but Martha was a widow with two children when they married. George raised the two children as his own, although never legally adopting them.
Mount Vernon is an incredible place. There are little houses for every function - blacksmith, gardener, wash, salt, smoke, paint, stables, kitchen, etc. George bought the property from his older half brother. Along with the money Martha brought into the family when they married, George was able to create what you see the property restored to now. He was a surveyor, architect, inventor and farmer, in addition to the roles we more commonly know him for.
The property sits right along side the Potamic River, with a gorgeous view from the back landing. No wonder George and Martha loved living here. The view alone sold me. The Washington’s entertained often, with as many as 677 guests recorded in one year. The living quarters had many bedrooms to accommodate all the guests, including fairly nice quarters for the servants of the visiting guests.
The house was interesting to see, but I think I enjoyed the out buildings and gardens even more. Then we took a break for lunch at the Inn, where we sampled peanut & chestnut soup & award-winning bread pudding. It was good, not great. After looking through the shops a bit, we spent the majority of the afternoon in the museum and information center.
The info center meticulously depicts each aspect of GW’s life, with displays and close to 20 video presentations. In order to get an accurate representation on what GW looked like through various stages of his life, they studied busts, portraits, clothes, etc and feel what is displayed now is as close to accurate as humanly possible.
GW grew up as the son of a wealthy farmer who died when GW was 11. Because he was the youngest of five children, not much of the inheritance fell to him. He struggled and relied on family connections to make a place for himself. He started his career as a surveyor. It wasn’t long before he worked in the Virginia army and got involved with the British in the British/French war. He made a military name for himself then. After the war, he remained with the military and it was at this time that he met, courted and married Martha.
He was recruited to lead our troops in the Revolutionary war and soon discovered that face to face battle with the British did not work. He then resorted to spy tactics and surprise attacks to keep the British off-guard. As we all know, it worked. After the war, he could have easily become King. The entire nation was enamored with him. Instead, he gave the power back to the people by way of resigning his post to Congress.
Four years later, Congress asked him to preside over the Constitution Committee. Then he was unanimously voted to be our first president. He took the job very seriously, and realized that everything he did was setting a precedence for presidents to come. He took a second term because he felt he needed to, but then retired to Mount Vernon.
Two and half years later, he went out in the rain to work at the farm. He developed a sore throat, but thought nothing of it. Two and half days later he died of what they now presume to be a bacterial infection. Martha was devastated, and closed their bedroom off for good. She burned their letters to each other, wanting them to remain private. She lived out another two and a half years running the estate from her new third floor bedroom, before passing away and being buried next to her husband at Mount Vernon.
Another interesting tidbit - GW took very good care of his teeth, better than most did at the time. But he was plagued with tooth aches and eventually lost all of his teeth. He had numerous sets of dentures and none of them were very comfortable. His portrait that is most well-known, the one on the $1 bill, shows him with a discomforting face. That’s probably because he just received a new full set of dentures, they didn’t fit well and were very uncomfortable for him.
For dinner, we took a cab driver’s advice and went to a terrific Mexican restaurant. It had fantastic margaritas and Mexican City style tacos. So yummy!
