Mount Vernon is the iconic home of our nation’s first President, George Washington. Over the course of his lifetime, Washington added on to the original structure to create what we see today. Mount Vernon is one of the three presidential homes that I would like to visit someday -along with Monticello, Jefferson’s home, and Montpelier, Madison’s home (which I will be visiting in a few short weeks!). Let’s take a little tour around the site and see what there is to do should you drop by for a visit!
If you don’t get a chance to get to the real thing there is a
virtual tour of the site you can check out.
There is much to see and do at Mount Vernon – plan to spend a whole day there or more. So much to do that they provide you with an
online planner to decide what you want to make sure you do and see! As this is a real working plantation the things to do change with the seasons. Among the places you can visit include the main home (1st and 2nd floors), gardens, fields, blacksmith shop, coach house, gardener’s house, greenhouse, kitchen, salt house, servant’s hall, slave quarters, smokehouse, stable, distillery, gristmill, and storehouse. Many of these places are peopled by costumed historical interpreters to answer your every question.
Aside from the living and working quarters you can visit the final resting places of George and Martha Washington. If you are lucky you might even be able to see a wreath laying ceremony. You can also visit the memorial to the slaves that lived and worked the Mount Vernon plantation.
There are many different tours that you can take around the different aspects of the plantation. You can take the National Treasure Tour to see where the movie National Treasure: Book of Secrets was filmed. There is a Garden and Landscape Tour, Slave Life Tour, and Mount Vernon Civil War Tour. If you want a truly unique experience you can have Dinner with the Washingtons! You not only learn about what the Washington’s ate but you get to have a tasting at the end too. There is also a Mount Vernon Inn Restaurant where you are served by costumed interpreters and dine on colonial delicacies.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to all of the wonderful things that you can do at Mount Vernon. You can explore more about visiting Mount Vernon or check out other various historical resources at the
Mount Vernon website.
Have you ever been? Share with us you memories!
Copyright © 2012 by The Maiden’s Court
Sounds like a fascinating place to visit!
ReplyDeleteI would really like to visit here, it is so beautiful. My boyfriend has put a limit on one historical house visit per vacation, haha.
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