Mount Vernon overlooks the Potomac River near Alexandria. It was named for Admiral Edward Vernon, Lawrence Washington's commander in the British navy. Lawrence was George Washington's half brother. The land was patented in 1647 and Lawrence built a house there in 1743. George Washington inherited the house 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 storeys high. It has a broad, columned portico, wide lawns, fine gardens and it is surrounded by subsidiary buildings. George Washington lived there from 1747 until his death in 1799.
The mansion has been restored after Washington's detailed notes, with much of the original furniture, family relics and duplicate pieces of the period. In 1860, the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, which had been organized four years earlier, purchased the estate. It includes a tomb, which was built between 1831 and 1837 and holds the sarcophagi of George and Martha Washington and the bodies of other members of the family.
Mount Vernon is in the northeast of Virginia 150 km north of Richmond and immediately south of Washington D.C.
Travel Guides for Mount Vernon
Find a flight to Mount Vernon